PBR Scorecards and Metrics
Customer Equity
To ensure that low-to-moderate income (LMI) customers have the same pathway to programs as other customers and are not inadvertently carrying the financial burden so that other customers can enjoy program benefits, the Company’s focus on equity includes approaching everything we do with an equitable lens. We strive to develop new programs, policies and procedures with an emphasis on whether a program provides equity for all customers. Input on our programs, strategies, and policies are solicited and provided by our LMI Customer Advisory Council made up of non-profit and government agency stakeholders from all three counties served by our Companies. In addition to the LMI Customer Advisory Council, the Company interacts with 110 individuals from 50 plus nonprofits and government agencies to share and welcome feedback on our efforts to make certain that no customer is left behind, as well as partner on outreach efforts to the underserved community.
The Companies engage in a coordinated, collaborative and strategic effort to ensure the LMI population is informed of opportunities for utility financial aid, energy efficiency, as well as other aid that is available to them by our nonprofit partners. The Companies use our team and resources to deploy outreach via email, direct mail, door hangers, social media, news media, ads, speaking engagements, volunteer efforts, translating our communication pieces in foreign languages, donations by our employees and Company in order to reach everyone that needs help.
This page contains reported metrics related to customer equity, which are further described below:
- LMI Program Participation Reported Metric
LMI Program Participation Reported Metric
The LMI Program Participation Metric indicates the extent to which LMI customers are participating in the energy transition taking place in Hawaii by enrolling in certain renewable energy-related utility programs.
For this metric, LMI customers are defined as:
- Current year Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) participants
- Customers served under Hawaii Energy’s Affordability & Accessibility (A&A) programs
- Customers with voluntary disclosed income of 150% of the Hawaii Federal Poverty Limit (FPL).
The use of the Hawaii FPL provides a proxy for low-income customer income in the state and is consistently utilized by other state and federal low-income programs. The income level corresponding to 150% of the Hawaii FPL is comparable to the income threshold for LIHEAP eligibility for a family of four.1
1 The LMI customer base for this metric will be updated in the first quarter reporting of each year once the company has had the opportunity to refresh its LIHEAP customer listing, obtain updated applicable A&A program data from Hawaii Energy and include applicable customers who have disclosed their income from the voluntary disclosure of income question submitted with applications for participation in the respective utility programs taken in the prior year that meets the 150% FPL criteria for that year.
Based on the currently defined LMI customer base, the company will report the number and percentage of applicable participants in the following utility programs on a quarterly basis: 1) Community-Based Renewable Energy (CBRE)/shared solar projects; 2) Time-of-Use (TOU) rates; 3) Distributed Energy Resource (DER) programs; and 4) Demand Response (DR) programs. See below for further details regarding these programs.
For the results as of 1Q21, there were no LMI participants identified in the company’s CBRE and TOU rates programs.
Metric: Number of LMI customers participating in each of the following programs, and percentage of program participants in each of the following programs that are LMI:
- CBRE/shared solar projects
- TOU rates, including the existing TOU-RI rate and any new TOU rates developed in Docket No. 2019-0323
- DER programs, including existing programs such as NEM, NEM+, Customer Grid-Supply, Customer Grid-Supply Plus, Smart Export and Customer Self-Supply, as well as Smart DER
- DR programs, including any existing DR programs, such as Energy Scout programs, Fast DR programs or Grid Services Purchase Agreements, or Bring Your Own Device.
Reporting Frequency: Quarterly
Please click the button below for historical data (in Excel format).