Customer Service

Frequently Asked Questions

Hawaiian Electric reads customer meters once a month in order to generate your bill.

For a CGS customer, your meter is a bi-directional meter and tracks the amount of electricity passing back and forth between the utility and you. For CGS customers, if you produced more electricity than you consumed, you will receive a credit on your monthly bill for the overage, per the approved PUC tariff rate. You will be billed for all electricity delivered from the utility to you at your current schedule rate.

For other Distributed Energy Resource programs, feeding excess electricity into the grid is either not allowed or not recommended, so the meter will simply show a reduction in the electricity received from the utility.

A bi-directional meter records electricity moving both to and from your property and keeps track measured in kilowatt hours, or kWh.

The kWh amounts displayed on your meter are cumulative and do not reset each month. For customers with demand meters, the demand or kWh amount is reset at the end of each month's billing cycle.

Here is a list of approved inverters that meets TOV specifications.

Please contact your utility for more information.

An advanced inverter allows for more complex functionality and compliance with the latest inverter standards. It provides the ability to receive operation instructions and make autonomous decisions to help with grid stability, support power quality and provide ancillary services, which also help maintain the stability and power quality of the electric grid.

For all rooftop solar systems, a complete submittal package needs to be provided to your utility for review. Though system size and design determine the amount of information needed, in general the following need to be provided:

  • A complete Distributed Energy Resource Interconnection Submittal Application Cover Form
  • A signed program specific agreement
  • A program specific Description of Generating Facility exhibit
  • Equipment specification sheets
  • Inverter compliance needs to be submitted prior to final execution of agreements. Inverters need to meet Hawaiian Electric's technical requirements
  • A utility disconnect that is lockable and has a visible disconnect switch
  • Stamped and signed site-specific drawings. Single-line drawings for all projects and 3-line for projects equal to 30 kW or per the applicable County's rule.
  • All systems must comply with Hawaiian Electric's Interconnection requirements in effect at the time of signing the agreement or at the time of system interconnection, whichever is later.

The executed agreement will provide the customer approval to operate their Distributed Energy Resource system and connect to the utility grid.

You can check the status at www.hawaiianelectric.com/IIQ or by emailing or calling your utility. IIQ stands for "Integrated Interconnection Queue" and is designed to provide some basic information to an applicant and/or contractor for where they fall in the IIQ by company name and on a particular circuit.

First Come, First Served
Hawaiian Electric's Distributed Energy Resource programs are available to all customers on a first come, first served basis.

The Integrated Interconnection Queue
The Integrated Interconnection Queue reserves capacity for your Distributed Energy Resource system on the circuit that serves your location. Placement in the queue occurs once your submitted application has passed the initial completeness review.

Your Project Completion Time Frame
After your application has been Conditionally Approved, to be fair to other customers who may be waiting to apply on circuits that already have a high amount of installed distributed generation, Hawaiian Electric's policy is that you must finish your project within an 12-month time frame for systems under 10 kW and 18-month time frame for systems >10kW. The time frame for completion begins from the date of your Conditional Approval. A one-time extension of 180 days may be requested in writing, but this must be sent during the last two months before your designated time frame expires. If you exceed all deadlines, your application will be cancelled and your reserved circuit capacity forfeited. You would then need to reapply and start at the beginning of the process.

Only Underwriters Laboratory (UL) listed equipment may be used in Distributed Energy Resource systems that are interconnecting to the utility grid.

All inverters must meet the Hawaiian Electric technical requirements that are listed in Appendix I or Rule 14H. Proof of Compliance needs to be provided to the utilities for new installations or reprogramming by use of the Distributed Energy Resource Project Validation Form that is found on our websites.

Before you design your system and purchase inverters, we recommend that you confirm with the inverter manufacturer whether their equipment meets our technical requirements.