HB 243 Hawaii House · 2026 Regular Session

RELATING TO ENERGY.

Summary

Requires the Public Utilities Commission to establish a streamlined grid-ready home interconnection process. Requires the Hawaii Electricity Reliability Administrator to report to the Legislature on the streamlined grid-ready home interconnection process. Effective 7/1/3000. (HD2)

Issues: ✓ Energy

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Feb 2025

House Passage

Feb 2025

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Jan 16, 2025 Last action Dec 8, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

HB243_HD1 → HB243_HD2 · 6 edits

MODERATE

This revision shifts the bill's focus from a general grid-ready home interconnection process to one specifically targeting investor-owned electric utility companies. It expands the scope to include electric vehicle charging and clarifies that service upgrade costs remain the responsibility of the asset owner. The bill also adds new requirements for certifying licensed electricians and updates the reporting obligations to the Hawaii Electricity Reliability Administrator.

Scope change

The bill now explicitly applies only to investor-owned electric utility companies rather than all regulated utilities, and it adds electric vehicle charging to the list of covered systems.

SCOPE

The streamlined interconnection process is now limited to investor-owned electric utility companies instead of all regulated utilities.

Electric vehicle charging is now explicitly included as part of the grid-ready home interconnection process.

REQUIREMENT

The requirement for utilities to pay a cost-sharing fee for service upgrades was removed; asset owners must now pay for these upgrades.

New requirements were added to establish a process for approving or certifying licensed electricians to perform specific meter and panel upgrades.

ENFORCEMENT

Reporting obligations were updated to require the Hawaii Electricity Reliability Administrator to report to the Legislature instead of the Public Utilities Commission.

DEFINITION

The bill's summary and statutory references were updated to reflect the new focus on investor-owned utility companies.

Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the House by voice vote (no roll call recorded).

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 13, 2025

Lower · Passed

Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on FIN as amended in HD 2 with none voting aye with reservations; Representative(s) Garcia, Pierick voting no (2) and Representative(s) Cochran, Kitagawa, Ward excused (3).

lower

Feb 13, 2025

Committee

Reported from HSG (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 586) as amended in HD 2, recommending referral to FIN.

lower

Feb 12, 2025

Lower · Passed

The committee on HSG recommend that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes were as follows: 6 Ayes: Representative(s) Evslin, Miyake, Grandinetti, Kila, Kitagawa, La Chica; Ayes with reservations: none; 2 Noes: Representative(s) Muraoka, Pierick; and 1 Excused: Representative(s) Cochran.

lower

Feb 4, 2025

Committee

Reported from EEP (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 107) as amended in HD 1, recommending passage on Second Reading and referral to HSG.

lower

Jan 28, 2025

Lower · Passed

The committee on EEP recommend that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes were as follows: 5 Ayes: Representative(s) Lowen, Perruso, Kahaloa, Kusch, Quinlan; Ayes with reservations: none; 0 Noes: none; and 1 Excused: Representative(s) Ward.

lower

Jan 21, 2025

Committee

Referred to EEP, HSG, FIN, referral sheet 1

lower

Jan 17, 2025

Introduced

Introduced and Pass First Reading.

lower

Jan 16, 2025

Introduced

Pending introduction.

lower

7 primary · 0 co-sponsors