Hawaiian Electric Industries

Hawaiian Electric Company incorporated on October 13, 1891. Within about 16 years the utility had 2,500 customers on Oahu. By 1914 HECO had started rural service to the windward side of the island and was marketing electric products like refrigerators and flat irons. In 1937 HECO broke ground on its second power plant, and transmission lines soon crisscrossed Oahu.

War and statehood

During World War II HECO power plants linked to military bases, generating more than one million kilowatt hours of electricity each day.

Hawaii became a state in 1959, and by then Oahu was entirely electrified. HECO opened a 116 MW plant in downtown Honolulu in 1954. The state's first reheat steam turbine generator went on line at Kahe on the west coast of Oahu. Today, Kahe is the state's largest plant with a total generating capacity of 650 MW.

Island expansion

HECO purchased Maui Electric Company in 1968. In 1970, HECO acquired the Hawaii Island's Hilo Electric Light Company . In 1988 MECO acquired the Lanai City power plant on the island of Lana'i, and in 1989, Molokai Electric Company on the island of Moloka'i. Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. was created as a holding company for these various utilities in 1983. In 2013, HECO began working with Siemens to develop a self-healing grid in eastern Oahu and Waikiki to ensure a reliable electrical supply.On December 4, 2014, NextEra Energy tendered an offer to purchase HEI for $4.3 billion. The sale required approval by the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission. On July 18, 2016, it was announced that the merger was cancelled after the Public Utilities Commission disapproved the deal. The merger included plans to convert HEI's oil-fired generating plants to run on natural gas, which were to use liquified natural gas imported from a British Columbia plant of FortisBC. The upgrades were cancelled as they were dependent upon approval of the merger.On December 24, 2019, HECO announced that it would begin operating under a single name with its subsidiaries MECO and HELCO—Hawaiian Electric.