Hawaii Electricity Rates per kWh: Every Island, Month by Month

Hawaii does not have one electricity price. It has six grids with separate fuel costs, and the state average hides how far apart they moved in 2026. Oʻahu began the year as the cheapest of the four main islands for a 500 kWh month and reached November as the dearest.

What a month of power cost on each island in 2026

Rates change on the first of every month here, because fuel is passed through monthly. So we took each utility’s own filings and built the whole year. The first four columns are a 500 kWh home. Lānaʻi and Molokaʻi are shown at 400 kWh, the size Hawaiian Electric uses for those islands, so do not compare them straight across.

Oʻahu’s November figure is the highest in the filing’s tables, which run back to January 2022. Before this year, the peak in those tables was $236.79 in September 2022. Oʻahu’s bill is up $66.32 since January, or 34%, and that rise came in ten months with no change to base rates.

The Oʻahu and Maui columns, and Hawaiʻi Island from March, are the utilities’ filed figures. The other cells are our sums from the same month’s rate sheets: the customer charge, the green fee and the energy tiers. Tested against November’s filed figures, that sum lands within 2¢ on all five Hawaiian Electric grids. Kauaʻi is the KIUC customer charge plus 500 kWh at its effective rate, and has no filed bill to test against. December’s figures are due around the end of November.

The islands burning the most oil took the biggest hit

War with Iran began on 28 February 2026, and oil-fired grids felt it within weeks. It did not land evenly. Single months are noisy, so we compared the average of January to March with the average of May to November. Ranked by that rise, the grids fall in exactly the reverse order of their renewable share.

The Maui County share covers Maui, Lānaʻi and Molokaʻi together, and the Maui row here is the Maui grid alone. Four grids cannot prove a rule, and solar, wind, geothermal and hydro contracts all differ. But the direction is hard to miss. KIUC puts it plainly: its renewable power is bought on fixed-price contracts, which cushion members from oil swings.

Being cleaner did not make Hawaiʻi Island cheap. It started 2026 about $29 above Oʻahu, and its base energy charges are higher: 13.4¢ and 16.8¢ in the first two tiers, against 10.7¢ and 11.8¢. What it gained was a smaller swing, and in November, a lower bill than Oʻahu.

Where $260.62 goes on an Oʻahu bill

Hawaiian Electric itemises the typical bill in every monthly filing. In January, fuel and energy costs were 47.5% of it. By November they were 62%.

The base charges are the part a rate case argues over, and they are about a quarter of this bill. They have not moved since 2019. The monthly energy line moved $69.39 between January and November, more than the entire base charge.

From $95 a barrel to $167: how oil reaches your bill

Oʻahu’s November filing prices its low-sulphur fuel oil at $167.10 a barrel, on 705,551 barrels. January’s filing priced it at $95.30. That 75% rise in the utility’s inventory cost is the main reason the energy charge went from 18.449¢ to 32.327¢.

There is a brake, and it is small. The utility absorbs 2% of fuel cost changes, capped at $2.5 million a year in either direction. Oʻahu’s November filing shows the full $2.5 million already used, against about $625 million of major fuel cost so far this year. With the cap reached, any further rise this year lands on customers.

The Oʻahu fuel supply contract with Par Hawaii was amended in 2025 and runs to 31 January 2029. Hawaiian Electric said then that a modified pricing structure would cut volatility and take about $2.77 off a typical bill. Those estimates predate the war, and Hawaiian Electric said they could vary with oil markets.

Hawaiʻi Island shows why you should read the filing and not one headline. Its November bill fell $13.18 while Oʻahu’s rose $14.18, because its energy factor and purchased power line both dropped that month.

Every big move in the price chart is an oil story

Hawaii has been the most expensive state in every year of our series. The 12-month average is now 44.26¢, against 18.04¢ nationally, and it is up 58% on 2010’s 28.10¢. That rise is only the 21st largest in the country, because Hawaii was already so far above everyone else.

Read the yearly figures and oil markets are almost all you see. The price hit 37.3¢ in 2012, stayed near 37¢ to 2014, then collapsed to 27.5¢ in 2016 when oil crashed. It jumped from 33.5¢ to 43.0¢ in 2022. The monthly high in our data is 52.72¢ in June 2026.

The federal figure trails the filings by two to three months, so a fuel move shows up on your bill long before it reaches the 12-month average.

Four utilities, and no one to switch to

Hawaii has no retail choice. All 448,869 households get power from whichever utility owns their island’s grid: three Hawaiian Electric companies, or KIUC, the member-owned cooperative on Kauaʻi. No grid here connects to another, so a cheap kilowatt-hour on one island cannot reach the next.

EIA-861 for 2025: each utility’s revenue from homes divided by the kWh they used, so monthly charges are spread into the price.

Hawaiian Electric’s own 2025 averages split Maui County apart: Oʻahu 40.54¢, Maui 41.58¢, Hawaiʻi Island 45.81¢, Molokaʻi 48.48¢ and Lānaʻi 50.02¢. KIUC’s federal figure was 38.43¢. Those are full-year 2025 numbers, from before the oil spike.

Lānaʻi and Molokaʻi swing the hardest

The two smallest grids rely mostly on diesel, and a single fuel price change can rewrite a month. Lānaʻi’s 400 kWh bill went from $203.08 in April to $301.74 in June, which works out to about 75¢ for every kilowatt-hour. Molokaʻi fell $31.40 in one month, from October to November. Its bill had dropped to $195.44 in August and then reached $253.28 in October.

Their rates also climb sooner. A Molokaʻi or Lānaʻi home moves to the second energy tier after 250 kWh, against 350 kWh on Oʻahu and Maui and 300 kWh on Hawaiʻi Island. Civil Beat reported Lānaʻi’s typical bill up 55% from June 2025 to June 2026, which was more than $100 a month.

If you budget on either island, plan on the high months and not the average. The past year gives no pattern you could time.

The rebasing case: what would change in 2027

Hawaiian Electric has asked regulators for about $170 million a year, or 5.3%, in Docket 2026-0162. It would be the first reset of base rates in years, done without a full rate case. The Public Utilities Commission says no decision has been made, and the last public hearing was set for Hilo on 4 November.

Those are 500 kWh bills, or 400 kWh on Lānaʻi and Molokaʻi. The Star-Advertiser reported a first decision tentatively set for mid to late April 2027, which would fall after the proposed January start, and base rates held until 2032 apart from an inflation adjustment. Check the docket before you plan around either date.

Scale matters here. The full two-year request on Oʻahu is $11 a month. The energy cost line alone added $16.32 to the Oʻahu bill between October and November. That does not make the request small: unlike fuel, it would not come back down. The company told regulators in early 2026 that its rates were “among most stable in the country”, which was fair for 2025 and looks different now.

The company says the request is not tied to the Maui wildfire settlement. You can comment at any time while the docket is open, through the commission’s online portal, by email or by post.

Hawaii uses little, and pays the most anyway

A Hawaii home uses 6,173 kWh a year, about 514 kWh a month. That is 50th of the 51, with only California lower, and far below the US figure of about 10,500 kWh. The yearly bill still comes to $2,732, the highest in the country. Mild weather, small homes and rooftop solar all hold usage down, and the price overwhelms them.

Usage here climbs with the air conditioner, not the heater. In the 2026 data so far, February is the low point at 422 kWh and August the high at 570 kWh.

The state average also hides a wide spread. Hawaiian Electric told regulators that its most common bill in 2024 was just $110 a month, while a 500 kWh Oʻahu bill that year was around $207. Solar households and small users most likely explain the gap, and a neighbour’s bill says little about yours.

Solar and batteries when power costs 50¢

About half of Oʻahu’s single-family homes now have rooftop solar, and Hawaiian Electric’s grids carry more than 120,500 systems. In the first half of 2026 another 3,429 went up, with 55 MW of batteries, more battery capacity than solar.

That battery figure is the sensible reaction to the rates. New systems sell to the grid at far less than the power they replace, so on Oʻahu what you use yourself is worth more than three times what you export at midday.

An Oʻahu home buying at 48.6¢ to 50¢ in November earns 13.5¢ for midday exports. Maui’s 6.6¢ is the weakest, and a system there has to be sized around your own use and a battery. These rates are updated every three years and this table ends in 2026, so ask what applies to a 2027 contract. New customers get a seven-year lock, and credits unused at the end of the year expire.

Battery owners can also look at BYOD Plus, which pays $400 per kW committed, with $400 more for qualifying lower-income homes. Hawaiian Electric’s example is a 5 kW, two-hour commitment earning $2,000 up front and about $52 a month. The page gives both five and ten years for the commitment, so get that term in writing. Even a solar home pays a minimum: $30.22 a month on Oʻahu’s November sheet.

The cheaper daytime rate most homes cannot join

Hawaiian Electric’s Shift and Save pilot prices power by the hour of the day, and the gap is large. On Oʻahu’s November sheet, daytime is 24.8¢, overnight 49.6¢ and the 5pm to 9pm peak 74.4¢, with $21.13 of fixed monthly charges.

We tried two made-up homes, each using 500 kWh. With 30% by day, 50% overnight and 20% at peak, the bill is $256.69, close to the standard $260.62. Move to 50%, 35% and 15%, and it drops to $225.66. Those splits are ours, so your own would differ.

It closed to new participants on 1 February 2025. The pilot randomly picked about 4% of customers on Oʻahu and Hawaiʻi Island, and anyone who opts out cannot return. Most homes stay on tiered rates, where the hour does not change the bill, so running appliances at noon saves money only if you have your own solar.

Estimate your own bill on November rates

Tiers here go up with use, the reverse of what a bulk buyer might expect, and each island draws its lines differently. Add the fixed amount to your usage in each tier. These are single-phase rates for November and will change on 1 December.

The calculator below uses the state average, so it suits a rough annual figure. For this month, the table is closer.

If you cannot pay this bill

Ask before a bill goes past due. Hawaiian Electric offers plans that split the balance into four or six equal months, interest-free with late fees waived, or an extension of up to 15 days on a past-due amount. You have to keep paying new bills on time. The company calls the instalment plans available for a limited time and gives no end date. On Maui, it has suspended disconnections, late fees and interest through 15 December 2026.

The state’s H-HEAP programme has two routes, and you can use only one per year, October to September. The energy credit takes applications only in June, so the next window is June 2027. Crisis help is open all year if you have a disconnection notice, but only a limited number are approved each month, so apply early in the month. Applications go through Honolulu Community Action Program, Maui Economic Opportunity or Hawaii County Economic Opportunity Council. On Kauaʻi, ask KIUC which agency covers you.

Do not count on new state money. The commission’s own bill for a state-funded energy assistance programme failed in the 2026 session, after reaching conference. Federal aid to Hawaii has historically been among the lowest in the nation, as the commission points out.

Hawaiʻi Energy runs a free install of bulbs, water fixtures and power strips for H-HEAP households, while funding lasts. Dial 2-1-1 for non-profit help. Homes with life-support equipment or special medical needs should tell the utility now, ahead of any notice.

Would natural gas cut bills? The evidence so far

The argument is live because of bills like these. Japan’s JERA proposes a $2 billion floating terminal off Barbers Point feeding a 500 MW plant around 2030, and says Oʻahu households would save $500 a year, a figure the director of the University of Hawaiʻi’s energy institute disputes. The governor backs gas. No approval exists: the project still needs the commission, and Hawaiian Electric says it has not partnered with JERA.

The numbers have not held up well so far. The state energy office withdrew a $700 million savings case in March after admitting an algebra error, and the same director told Canary Media that the scenario it now favours works out to under a penny per kWh, close to break-even. An April UHERO brief found a fuel gap of $4 to $5 per million BTU in favour of LNG with Brent near $113, but warned that most gross savings came from a new plant and not the cheaper fuel. A separate solar paper by the same author was withdrawn in July over errors.

Our reading: no version of gas arrives before about 2030, so it does nothing for the bills on this page. The commission’s preliminary findings for lawmakers are due by the end of the year.

How far Hawaii sits above everyone else

California, the second most expensive state, is well behind at about 32¢, and its homes pay a similar kilowatt-hour count: about 6,080 a year against Hawaii’s 6,173 kWh. That leaves a California home paying roughly $770 less a year. Alaska is a closer match in being isolated and oil-reliant, at about 27¢.

All 50 states and DC on one page, with a map.

How we built this page

The average price, usage, ranks and chart come from the US Energy Information Administration and update themselves. Bills, tiers and barrel prices come from filings dated in the text and do not update. We read them on 6 November 2026, and we will reread them when December’s arrive.

Renewable shares use the current legal formula, which is why Hawaiian Electric’s 37% for 2025 is lower than the 46.6% it would have been under the old one. The three-phase rates, commercial schedules and the older time-of-use schedules are left out. We are not your utility: check your own bill before you act on any number here.

Figures to August 2026 (EIA marks recent months preliminary), utility figures for 2025, refreshed 3 November 2026. How every number in this series is made and checked.

• Hawaii, every month since 2010 (CSV): price per kWh, kWh and bill per home, and the US price.
• Every state, DC and the US (CSV)
• Everything above with the utility and supplier figures (JSON)

EIA data is in the public domain: credit the U.S. Energy Information Administration. A link back is welcome.

Questions

Electricity rates in other states

Version history

• 1.0 (November 2026): first published.