Hawaiian Electric narrows Phase 2 grid modernization plan, prioritizing wildfire-risk devices and control systems

Hawaiian Electric on Tuesday told the Public Utilities Commission during a technical conference that it will narrow the scope of its Grid Modernization Phase 2 program to prioritize field devices and control‑system upgrades in identified wildfire risk areas while continuing investments in cyber monitoring and private LTE communications.

Nathan Tadaro, who leads Hawaiian Electric's grid modernization program, said the company completed its Phase 1 smart‑meter rollout in September, with about 95 percent of customer accounts on advanced metering infrastructure, roughly 3.5 percent of customers having formally opted out and about 1.5 percent inaccessible to crews. Tadaro said the Phase 2 redesign responds to the company’s unsuccessful applications for Department of Energy grid resilience grants and to more precise wildfire‑risk mapping the utility has developed since its earlier filings.

The revised scope focuses on five component areas: an advanced distribution management system (ADMS), field devices (smart reclosers, motor‑operated switches and voltage regulators), SCADA expansion at selected distribution substations, private LTE (PLTE) expansion for resilient communications, and operational‑technology cyber monitoring. Tadaro said the company plans to file a supplemental Phase 2 application in the first quarter that reduces the earlier $215,000,000 estimate to a smaller package the company can justify without DOE grant funding.

Why it matters: Commission staff and the Consumer Advocate pressed Hawaiian Electric for details because the program affects public‑safety operations such as public safety power shutoffs (PSPS), day‑to‑day reliability for customers, and the utility’s ability to integrate distributed energy resources (DERs). The scope and timing will also affect how much of the work requires ratepayer funding versus external grants such as DOE’s Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP).

ADMS and operational benefits

Hawaiian Electric described ADMS as the system that will integrate AMI and field‑device telemetry with SCADA and geographic information system data to speed fault location, enable more surgical PSPS or PSPS alternatives, and support fault‑location, isolation and service restoration operations. Tadaro said ADMS will allow the utility to “overlay wildfire risk zones” and to provide operators dynamic recommendations about actions such as blocking auto‑reclose or applying enhanced fast‑trip settings.

Sherry Ishikawa, director of operational technology, explained differences between the existing EMS and an ADMS: with the ADMS, she said, “you can group all of those signals together. Press one button, and it can send the signals for the enablement in a block format.” By contrast, she said, the current EMS requires per‑point work in many locations and, on Oahu, certain fast‑trip toggles still require physical access to substations.

Field devices, counts and prioritization

Tadaro said the company reduced the number of smart reclosers specifically proposed for wildfire risk mitigation from about 424 in the earlier filing to roughly 176 now targeted for Tier 2 and Tier 3 wildfire circuits after updating its wildfire maps. He said additional smart reclosers for non‑wildfire reliability needs remain under consideration; the company showed a variable plan of 45 to 150 additional reclosers for reliability improvement depending on whether it addresses circuits at one or two standard‑deviation thresholds of degraded reliability.

Motor‑operated switches increased in the revised scope because the updated wildfire maps showed additional sub‑transmission lines in Tier 2/3 areas. Voltage regulator needs were reduced because other ongoing projects already address many hosting‑capacity issues on identified circuits. Tadaro said the company has identified 18 legacy distribution substations proposed for SCADA expansion to improve remote controls in wildfire‑sensitive areas and that it will include island‑by‑island circuit lists in the forthcoming application.

Communications and cybersecurity

Hawaiian Electric plans to continue increasing PLTE capacity so that utility devices do not rely solely on public carriers during disasters. The company argued PLTE adds resilience and bandwidth prioritization for electric assets during events such as the Lahaina fire and major storms. On OT cyber monitoring, the utility said it will continue planned packet capture and storage, network segmentation and threat detection to secure field‑device deployments.

DOE grant history and reviewer feedback

Tadaro reviewed recent federal grant activity: Hawaiian Electric said it applied for three DOE grant categories (grid resilience, resilience innovation, and smart‑grid grants) and was not selected in the most recent round. The company received DOE feedback that reviewers wanted clearer baselines, more explicit roles for partner organizations, and more concrete community engagement and measurable outcomes in its community benefits plan.

Tadaro told commissioners the utility will incorporate that feedback if it seeks future GRIP funding and that having Commission approval of any local cost share helps strengthen grant applications. He said the company is considering whether to target a smaller federal request and a tighter scope focused on the most critical needs rather than a large, system‑wide ask.

Questions from commissioners and the Consumer Advocate

Commissioners asked for island‑level lists of targeted circuits, timing and staffing plans, device counts by island, and detailed bill‑impact tables. Staff asked that the application show which circuits are Tier 2/3 wildfire circuits and which are prioritized for reliability. Consumer Advocate Marcy Chang requested more specifics on requested Commission orders or target dates and more detailed community engagement plans tied to specific neighborhood boards or disadvantaged communities for applicant outreach.

Next steps

Hawaiian Electric said it will file a supplemental Grid Modernization Phase 2 application, with circuit‑level detail and an island‑by‑island breakdown of devices and costs, and will file its 2025–2027 Wildfire Safety Strategy (WSS) the following day. The utility said it expects to propose a shorter implementation window — about five years versus seven in the prior filing — and to provide a year‑by‑year deployment schedule in the application. The PUC may use the application and the WSS to evaluate any future requests for rate recovery or for Commission concurrence with grant‑funding cost share.