SB2497 HD1

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the public utilities commission relies on bill impact analyses prepared and modeled by electric utilities for proposed energy projects that estimate residential customer bill impacts to evaluate affordability. Electric utilities routinely submit customer bill impact analyses to the public utilities commission in applications for approval of energy generation power purchase agreements and other major resource additions, which inform the commission's public-interest determinations. However, in generation-related proceedings, these analyses rely heavily on assumptions developed by the electric utilities that are not fully disclosed to ratepayers. Instead, ratepayers are typically presented only with an estimated monthly dollar impact for a residential customer using five hundred kilowatt hours per month, with little to no transparency of the assumptions, calculations, or modeling underlying those estimates, limiting meaningful evaluation of the appropriateness of the utilities' bill impact analyses.

The legislature further finds that according to the United States Energy Information Administration, Hawaii's cost of electric energy for residential, commercial, and industrial ratepayers consistently ranks the highest in the nation, despite progress made toward integrating renewable energy resources into the electric system in a manner intended to improve affordability. Previously contracted energy generation and energy storage projects that have been delayed or terminated due to inflation, supply chain constraints, and changes in federal incentives have only exacerbated this affordability problem. Additionally, long-range utility forecast changes materially affect projected resource needs, costs, and rates. As a result, failure to disclose and update the assumptions behind customer bill impact projections prevents ratepayers from evaluating and determining whether a proposed project is in the public interest and whether the projected bill impacts are reasonable, current, and accurate.

The legislature also finds that access to and transparency of assumptions, methodology, and outputs of the bill impact analyses can empower ratepayers, increase cost‑effectiveness, enable economic analysis for affordability, improve decision‑making, maximize the value of investments and technologies, promote economic development, improve operational efficiency, and assist in evaluating grid stabilizing investments. Additionally, annual reporting and examination of actual monthly dispatch and levelized cost of energy data based on such dispatch are practical and highly useful for transparency and comparison purposes.

Therefore, the purpose of this Act is to require electric utilities, excluding electric cooperatives, to:

(1) Maintain an online bill impact analysis tool for electric generation projects that provides full disclosure to ratepayers of the top-level assumptions used to calculate the per-project impact on customer bills; and

(2) Submit an annual report to the public utilities commission.

SECTION 2. Section 269-47, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"[[]§269-47[]] Electric [~~power systems~~] generation projects data access and transparency; principles. (a) The commission, in carrying out its responsibilities under this chapter, shall consider the value of improving electric [~~power systems~~] generation projects data access and transparency within the State [~~in order~~] to empower ratepayers, improve decision-making related to reliability and operational efficiency of the electric system, maximize the value of grid modernization technologies and investments, and promote innovation and economic development opportunities related to electric [~~power systems~~] generation projects data analysis.

(b) In advancing the public interest, the commission shall balance consumer privacy, critical infrastructure security, grid modernization, and economic innovation considerations associated with electric [~~power systems~~] generation projects data access and transparency, including but not limited to the following principles:

(1) Enabling ratepayers to access their energy consumption and production data;

(2) Enabling ratepayers to authorize third-party data access, and allow verification of third-party authorization through electronic signature;

(3) Increasing the amount of publicly-available data related to utility generation, transmission, and distribution systems, as well as non-utility data from third parties that provide generation or non-wire alternatives to individual customers or the grid; and

(4) Ensuring that electric [~~power systems~~] generation projects data is made available through simple, electronic, consistent, machine-readable formats with temporal and geographic granularity.

(c) In addition to any requirements under this chapter, each electric utility that sells electricity for consumption in the State shall maintain an online bill impact analysis tool for electric generation projects that provides full disclosure to ratepayers of the top-level assumptions used to calculate the per project impact on customer bills. For electric generation projects with an impact below an applicable threshold, as determined by the commission by rule or order, each electric utility shall represent those generation projects in a set of categories, in summation, as determined by the electric utility.

(d) The bill impact analysis disclosure required under subsection (c) shall be available for download in an electronic format reasonably usable by ratepayers and others and, for purposes of reviewing and analyzing the underlying top-level assumptions and calculations, shall be sufficient to allow sensitivity analysis and scenario testing. The bill impact analysis shall include but not be limited to resource assumptions, project assumptions, and top-level modeling.

(e) For the submitted bill impact analysis disclosure data required under this section:

(1) The data shall be made available through simple, electronic, consistent, machine-readable formats with temporal granularity in an electronic format reasonably usable by ratepayers and others and, for purposes of reviewing and analyzing the top-level assumptions and calculations, shall be sufficient to allow sensitivity analysis and scenario testing; and

(2) The information shall be made publicly available without redaction, except for data that the commission determines to be confidential for reasons of cybersecurity or system security; provided that confidentiality shall not apply to cost, pricing, or operational assumptions necessary for ratepayer understanding; provided further that in response to a public record request, the redacted information may be withheld only to the extent authorized by chapter 92F.

(f) The electric utility shall update the bill impact analysis required under this section if any material assumption changes, including but not limited to project retirements and operational cost changes included in the analysis.

(g) Each electric utility shall submit an annual report to the commission of the levelized costs for energy generation and storage regarding the actual monthly dispatch and levelized cost based on the dispatch for all approved and operating energy generation and storage projects. The report shall include:

(1) The total energy dispatched from each energy project by month;

(2) The total cost incurred for each energy project by month;

(3) The calculation of the levelized cost of energy for each project based on actual dispatch and in dollars per kilowatt hour based on the dispatch; and

(4) Any adjustments or reconciliations applied to determine ratepayer charges.

(h) Subsections (c), (d), (e), (f), and (g) shall not apply to an electric cooperative.

For the purposes of this subsection, "electric cooperative" means a public utility that satisfies the requirements under section 269-31(c)."

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 3000.

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2497
THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2026		S.D. 2
STATE OF HAWAII		H.D. 1