Ever since conflict in the Middle East erupted with the Iran war, customers across the U.S. have been paying more for electricity.
Hawaiian Electric warned that customers may see a hike of about 20% to 30% due to the ongoing conflict and the Strait of Hormuz blockade, where oil tankers must normally pass to transport fuel and oil across the globe.
Higher electricity rates have begun rolling out across the state due to the volatile price of oil, and some have already started seeing the price hikes take place.
Jim Kelly is vice president of corporate communications at Hawaiian Electric, and he spoke with HPR about what Hawaiʻi residents need to know about keeping costs down.
Interview Highlights
On when to expect energy price hikes
JIM KELLY: These cost increases don't hit people for about 60 days, so most of the time we're buying oil and what we paid for it doesn't show up in people's bills until about 60 days later. And so that's whether it's going up or whether it's going down. So Oʻahu started seeing the increases in April. Toward the end of April, neighbor islands, for the most part, will see increases in May and probably a little bit into June, and then I think we're hoping that it's going to stabilize at that point, and then maybe with any luck, depending on the geopolitical situation, start heading back down.
On how customers can adapt their electricity use
KELLY: I'm going to get up on my own soapbox on this, because I've done it myself at my house. I think this is the time that, with rates going up, people really got to, you know, desperate times call for desperate, drastic measures. I think people really have to look closely at how they use electricity in their house.
You mentioned air conditioning, that's one of the top energy users. And I think if people are in the habit of, they sleep every night with the air conditioning on, I think you've got to maybe think about, ‘OK, can I get out of that habit, and especially before it gets really hot? Can I not use the air conditioner every night and use a fan at least maybe two nights a week, try that?' I think you’ve got to look at everything that generates heat. Your water heater is the number one energy user in most houses. I have experimented with turning it off and taking short showers. …
Experiment with some things around your house and it really can make a big difference. Just between the water heater and the air conditioner, I think you'd really be surprised — I was — how much it saved when I just stopped using it.
On different payment options
KELLY: So if you want to call us up, and I really want to make the point, you know our customer service, it's all local people. They're all people that are paying electric bills too. And so if you call up and you say, ‘Look, I'm struggling with this new higher bill that I'm paying right now,’ and we can work with you to try to come up with a payment plan right now. We're saying we can stretch that out over six months interest-free, and you can come up with a number with them that is going to be more comfortable for your budget, and hopefully on the next couple of three months, I hope this all gets resolved and we can go back to where we were previously.
But everybody is empowered in our customer service area to work with individual customers, to try to work out with them something that can help them stick to their budget. And we're very flexible. We want to just make sure, as long as people are giving us something every month when they get the bill, we can work with them.
This story aired on The Conversation on May 7, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
Hawaiian Electric Industries is an HPR underwriter.
