FILE - In this image from video posted by Shane Treu on Aug. 8, 2023, he uses a garden hose to spray water during fires caused by snapped electrical cables on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Hawaii's top public utility officials and the president of Hawaiian Electric are expected to testify Thursday, Sept. 28, in a congressional hearing about the role the electrical grid played in last month's deadly Maui wildfire.
Energy and Commerce Committee chair Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers; Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee chair Rep. Morgan Griffith; and Energy, Climate and Grid Security Subcommittee chair Rep. Jeff Duncan — all Republicans — questioned Kimura, Asuncion and Glick about the cause of the fire in a letter sent Aug. 30.
In written testimony provided to the committee before the hearing, Kimura focused on the challenges of providing electricity on an isolated island chain, and her feelings of responsibility and connection with the people of Hawaii. She did not discuss any fire mitigation efforts the utility has taken or provide new details about the events surrounding the fire.
Hawaiian Electric serves about 70,000 customers on Maui and nearly half a million customers statewide, including the Department of Defense, which is its largest customer.Kimura has acknowledged that Hawaiian Electric's downed lines caused the initial fire, but she wrote that the fire department said it extinguished that blaze and that the lines had been de-energized for more than six hours when the fire flared up in the same area again. She called the 3 p.m.
Asuncion Jr., the chair of the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, said in written testimony that the PUC began tying Hawaiian Electric's power rates in part to its performance in 2021, moving away from a traditional method of setting rates based on the cost of providing service. “The devastation of the August wildfires should never happen again,” Asuncion wrote. “In thinking about this priority, the Commission aims to ensure to the greatest extent possible that electric utility operations, infrastructure, and equipment in Hawaii are safe, reliable, and resilient to natural disasters such as wildfires, hurricanes, and flooding.”
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