 Okay, we're back. We're live to talk about energy on Gee, what is it Hawaii the state of clean energy here at four o'clock on a given Wednesday? And our special guest is Peter Russox spokesman for Hawaiian Electric Company, and we are joined by remote By Mitch Ewan who is co-host of this very same program. Hi guys. Welcome to your show Thanks a lot So Peter we wanted to talk about how Hawaiian Electric is dealing with the coronavirus The new world of coronavirus putting it that way because you know The electric company is the center of our world the center of our economy the center of our community and We care about you. We want we want to know how you're doing here We want to know how you're adapting and what you're learning sure you love us now that you need us Clearly, you know We're we may not be the center of all of all the universe here, but we're essential to pretty much everybody's way of life So the first thing I gotta tell you right off the bat is we're in full operation. Hawaiian Electric is Working on all islands. We have ample fuel Other supplies we have deliveries coming in regularly We're not like the grocery store where you can't get a box of pasta We have all you know, we have people in our power plants working We have people working in our system operation center We have some people out of the field doing routine and emergency repairs You have a lot of things to worry about right now, but you don't have to worry about your Your electricity service We prepare for these kinds of things locally and with a lot of support from some of our national organizations We train for them not so much until now for this specific kind of thing But for tsunamis and hurricanes and and weather and so forth and there there obviously some similarities and some differences We stood up what we call our our we have a an emergency management process And we have stood that up which means that you know, all the all the planning and work that is focused on this Problem go through a central office and we have those facilities are our commands. So We are in we're in good shape We are confident we have we have enough power some people have been asking Well, all these people working at home is is going to strain your your system Well, this time of year we have a lot of extra capacity because it's not august or or september when The air conditioners are running. Well, we have Obviously, we're going to have a lot less demand from offices restaurants Unfortunately bars and and other things are not going to be demanding so much. So We're we're in good shape. We have no, uh, you know, unusual worries. We got to keep, uh, You know, we keep track of our system We have to respond to various weather related outages kawai right now and not part of our system But kawai is going through some pretty heavy flooding right now, which they they are prepared to deal with as well So it's kind it's pretty much business as as usual as far as our customers are concerned on their side of the plug What has changed is that we are, uh Asking people we're telling people don't come and pay your bill in person Pay it on online pay by mail there are a variety of ways to pay it And this is important because we we know that in the uh in the coming days and weeks Some people are going to have more trouble than usual paying their electric bill So we're not going to do any disconnections whatsoever for the next 30 days And uh, we're encouraging people if they have a problem, uh paying their bill paying their bill in full Don't just ignore it. Give us a call and go to the website Uh look in the phone book you'll find some phone numbers Call us and say look i'm i'm having a problem What can we work out and we will do our best to work out partial payments or Whatever we can do to get you through this crisis We're donating some money to uh extra money more than usual to willow highly united way in the food bank But on a customer to to business relationship if you have a problem paying your your utility bill Call us it's much better to call and say i've got a problem Then to ignore it and then we don't know whether you're a deadbeat or you have a real problem And uh, we'll do everything we can don't forget you're going to ultimately have to pay for all this It's not a forgiveness, but it is uh, it could be deferred. We can work on payment plans We can talk to you about uh ways you may get help if you're in certain kinds of circumstances I can see this all puts a certain amount of pressure on you because the economy is Slowing down. I mean we had Keith Vieira in uh, you know, he's a hotel guy right and um The hotels are closing and they're not operating and all the ancillary businesses are closing or or limiting or stopping And um including a lot of restaurants and bars and what have you and they're not going to be turning the lights on you know Absolutely right and so uh, you know, that's the reality. We are living within our society right now Uh, we we will have lower sales invariably. I think One small right spot on the horizon if you've been following oil prices lately They're down around 20 dollars A barrel that's remarkable and it is remarkable and who knows how long it'll last and the russians and the soddies Finally get over their tiff it may change again But the point is that within the next two or three months Bills should be going down just because we're using less expensive oil to generate the 70 or so percent of the electricity that we still get for oil and the rest increasingly is is uh Renewable energy that's not tied to the price of oil. So that's a small glimmer of hope, but you're you're absolutely right. We are Uh, you know, we're girding for uh a down down turn in sales and so We're going to be confronting that reality too smaller sales and a lot of people who can't pay their bills Uh, there could be cash flow situations. I'm not in that Uh, you know, I'm not privy to all that but I'm sure we're planning for the eventuality that we might have that We have to pay our suppliers to keep the oil or the other supplies coming But we know they're fixed costs and but you know, this is not just a local problem. It's a worldwide problem. So We're all we're all kind of in this together in this weird way But it's definitely going to be some difficult times ahead for Everybody to keep their head above water and we're going to do all we can To be a solution and not a problem in that As I said, you know, we're going to try to help people with bills If we can we're going to we're we're still operating at full strength on things like our customer Customer installations departments contractors. We've communicated with all of them We're about to communicate with all the solar contractors who we work with Uh throughout the state and actually throughout the country and tell them we're still processing your We're still moving forward so that if you have a construction project that depends on some electricity Infrastructure or approvals or whatever we don't we don't want to be the we're not going to be the one in the way of moving that forward So the businesses that we can support we're going to support by working very hard to make all of our our time schedules and if We can be a little bit leaning on some of their time schedules. We're going to try to do that So, you know, we've got to look to the businesses like construction that can go forward now And make sure that the electric company is not an obstacle to that happening that they're not waiting for their They're they're transformer to be put in so they can finish the building or You know, whatever it may be and for socials for solar contractors We're not going to be holding up things. We're going to try our best to be Right on time in terms of getting their approvals back to them So they can go ahead and send their workers out pay their workers Collect their their money. So in the areas that we can have an influence We can't help the restaurant that has to close. We can't help the hotel Where the where visitors don't come but there are businesses that depend on us very directly And we're going to do all we can to make sure that they are able to Do their business successfully Yeah, it's a test of corporate character right now I think we're in test of character in general for all of us I think we're all going to be tested in the coming weeks and months, but uh, and here again You know, we've talked before about a new ceo not that the old ceo wouldn't have been just as good But scott sue is uh very much involved in the community and he's very very aware of of our Impact he's been out in the community a lot on resilience projects and uh, he's been you know, since he's been appointed and uh, he's been out meeting people out talking to people in the company and and He has the advantage of knowing our company very very well And the people in the company know him very very well and he he's known as a serious conscientious person uh, who is is uh, you know going to Put the community and the the company Put those interests together in the same in the same pot. It went to commandment schools uh, big family here Very much the local boy. I don't know shima also I don't want to take anything away from allen who who has done great and would be great today But scott, I think it we all agree is particularly In tune with with a lot of these things. He's just a conscientious thoughtful guy And he's going to make sure we come through this In a way that that reflects well on our company and that you know We'll all be proud of at the end. We did everything we could so that's good Let me make a couple of other points if you will For customers right now if you're not online in uh paying online Uh, this is a good time to go to hawainoelectric.com Follow the instructions you can get your bills online. You communicate online that way you don't have to uh, you know You certainly don't have to come into there our payment centers You can use that if you are uh, if you haven't downloaded our app Which i'm always promoting hawainoelectric and go to the google store or the apple store Get the hawainoelectric app for free. You can follow outages. You can be you can report outages You could find out where that's where we tend to put most of the kind of short term announcements about things that are going on I think all of us are going to come out of this experience As you were saying, you know a lot more people will be staying home after this I think a lot of us are going to be much more conscientious aware of what we can do online that we don't have to uh Be outside be to be in groups of people be in offices that are small and where we have a chance of Infecting others or being infected. So this is a great opportunity for customers to do that You can pay your bills online. You can get a lot of information online You can also follow outages report outages through these various Online devices and we would be thrilled. I mean it frankly saves us money, which we could pass back to people It purports it goes further to efficiency And I think it also brings the electric company and the community together This is a time when we have to work together and at the end of the day We'll probably understand each other a little better. Well, I hope so. I think you're right here And we're we are for our part. We're certainly aware of the fact You know, we're a big company people people get their bills every month and probably mumble grumble a little bit about it And we don't blame them But we are all in this together and and this is a company Uh, you know, I've been there for 20 years now, but the company's been there for 128 years now and it's You don't look that old at all. Oh, well, you know It's because of it's good. Good living. What is it? Anyway, it's I can't touch my face. I can't tell you exactly Anyway, uh, this is a company that is is literally, you know, all about hawaii has been it's Locally owned and operated. It's all the managers. Everybody's lives here This is the most local company I've I've ever worked for Local in the best sense both in the kind of way people interact with each other and in the sense of Our responsibility for this society as we said before I mean except for a couple of people who are sleeping under bridges everybody depends on The utility for their electric service for watching this program for keeping their food cold Heating it up and all everything that we all know about and we are very very Aware of that and try to be very conscientious about making sure that we we live up to that responsibility Uh, it you know, it it's not just talk although i'm a talker. It's not just talk it weighs on our Our ways very heavily on us every day and and uh, we take it quite seriously We try to joke about a little bit so we don't get all consistent with everything I've seen So uh, peter ross egg that spoke to him from Hawaiian Electric And mitch ewan our co-host here on uh, hawaii state of clean energy You can take a short break come back in half a minute and uh and mitch, uh, like you to follow up with whatever comes to mind and On peter's discussion. We'll be right back We're back. We're live. We're here with peter ross egg and mitch ewan Talking about hawaii the state of clean energy getting a handle on on how the electric utility How wine electric is dealing with the corona crisis? Uh, so mitch you had some thoughts you'd like to ask peter about Well, I'll make uh make a comment first and then we can go along with that first of all You know a big shout out to the Hawaiian electric employees who show up On time when they're needed, you know, they may not be I'm sure they don't show up as they're feeling sick But thank god they do and keep the lights on and the air conditioning on everything we rely on and the other point is that um If we didn't have a good reliable electricity system like especially now we could not Have the choice of or we'd have the choice but we could not work at home So the effect on the economy by Not having electricity to be online and do your business out of the out of your house rather than exposing yourself Really uh rests on the shoulders of the employees of uh, Hawaiian electric. So Without trying to be uh too gratuitous. I just want to shout out Hawaiian electric and like uh jay said and you know It's not the big bad old utility. I mean like you said, they're all part of the family They support us and uh Why for one I'm very grateful that I can be here in the comfort of my house and still do my my day to day work Without getting laid off Like a lot of employees like you said are are being laid off and that's really really bad. I mean, that's really a sad and Fortress people So anyway, thank you for that. Thank you, Mitch. I appreciate that and I know if you know Our 2,000 employees who are all watching at this. No, well, who if they were watching at this moment Uh, they would they would appreciate it too. I will say we have I think we estimate 700 or 800 of our employees right now are working from home Getting, you know, kind of breaking in the system to allow them to do that We are a very technological company in that respect and we've long had the ability But we've never had this volume of people working from home Teleconferencing and you know, it it comes along if I may say just at the time when we're kind of finishing this one company move so We were already Doing a lot more teleconferencing because departments have people on all three of the major islands And so forth and now that combined with the with working from home is I think it's going to change the way we work in the future, but we really encourage other people to to do that to the extent they can Yeah Your comment about changing how we work. I think there's a huge issue I mean people are going to be doing this for quite a long time probably And we're going to adjust how we do our work and I think we'll become much more efficient So instead of spending, you know, an hour on the road and traffic, we can have more productive time at home We're not going to be crowding the roads with more cars. So maybe that'll reduce traffic congestion emissions A whole variety of things. Maybe the requirement for a company to have so much office space. They can look at that so, you know, we had Shared offices and staggered times, you know, we wouldn't have to invest so much in our rent and all the other things that It takes to keep an office open. So I can see this. I see it from the university level is basically in my own personal Thing I just I show up to the office. I work behind a computer basically Interaction with people in the hallways is good because some of the best ideas come out of these unplanned meetings in the hallway So I think you still have to keep that component in you can't just totally walk away from the office and never show up You still have to have those interactions Maybe they can be planned interactions like brainstorming sessions where people just get together, you know in a morning Once or twice a week or a month and just talk about things and get that You know input from everybody around the table because you know, that's why Human beings interact so well is like everybody's got an idea and a slant put on things But I think this will certainly make people look harder at that business model so It's like, you know, remember in 08 when oil was up about What was it for barrel $150 a barrel or pushing that and the the level of traffic dropped dramatically like 2025 percent But once the oil kind of leveled back out to its normal around $80 a barrel It didn't spring back that 25 percent. I think the policy forum who is our sponsor for the show Got to get a plug into the forum they found out through One of their surveys they did that really Net overall there was about a 10 reduction In the level of traffic After the event that event was over So We'll have to see how like you said how this factors out like does everybody actually need to show up just to show up Yeah, we human beings seem to need a tragedy or a disaster or a catastrophe And then we change into ways that we kind of knew before we should or we could But we just kind of didn't get around to it So I think human nature being what it is. I'm sure there will have be a lasting effect from all this and and I think that'll be we'll see but you're right We still can't we still have to have human interaction and maybe it has to be a little more focused a little more planned We have to use the electronic media to You know to have some of these things you can have now with skype and with other kinds of things you can have uh Get together so to speak and uh with uh people online, but I think you're still going to have to have a A reasonable level of interaction with human beings Face to face and I think a good balance is what we're going to be seeking So there have been a you know a lot of proceedings going on at the puc a lot of You know deadlines running, you know processes legal processes Contractual processes you spoke about dealing with contractors before but I'm I'm talking about you know the projects the big projects The renewable projects everything in the pipeline so to speak Um, and I wonder you know, I don't know if the puc is shut down like the courts. Maybe it is Um, but the state government is essentially shut down even the legislature And so I wonder how that affects all the initiatives that have been going on As a matter of course between the electric company and You know various contractors and Proposers and developers and the like and the puc. How does that affect this? Well, I think the puc because it is the regulator of Our utility and the other utilities that are essential to daily life Is probably a little bit different than than the legislature. I know there was a meeting yesterday morning at the public utilities commission where we were asked to Talk about what we were doing in terms of customer facing Communications and how we were dealing with people and we told them about These kinds of things that i've been telling you about the decision not to Do any any uh disconnections? The things we're doing to reach out to people who may not be able to pay their bills How we were talking to to contractors and so forth So I I don't know about the staff and I would I would assume that if there are people at the puc Who can work from home as there are at hawaii electric and other places that many of them are doing that But I think the commission itself Uh sees its role as not uh a job where they can say oh well, uh, you know We're going to close down and not not worry about this till later. I think they're very much involved I think I know the the people who are now commissioners j griffin and and uh, who's the chair and others are not the kind of people who will say Hands off and we're not going to worry about it. They're going to be very hands-on. You know, some schedules are perhaps going to be uh elongated or obviously there are there's the possibility that some of these timelines will slip But I think to the extent that we can avoid that We're going to try to avoid it. We have and we've promised in may to Announce another round of renewable con of renewable projects and to begin negotiations with those companies on final contracts. I can't I can't say with absolute certainty a little happened exactly on the day we expected But I believe we'll go forward and we because we we have to we need to We need to get our our dependence even on cheap oil down further over the next few years and So that's going to go forward. They're going to be inevitably some things going forward that can't be controlled and that will be delayed I don't doubt that that will happen But we're committed to being as you know operating as near to normal as possible Given the circumstances that we have the facilities to do much of that We're committed to being as close to normalcy as we possibly can And to but at the same time giving our customers and giving our contractors and giving the people we work with Every break we can too because they may not have The size or the ability to to deal with things the way we can but you know peter, uh, you know, the everybody makes these expectations on how long this virus crisis is going to last 30 days a lot of a lot of organizations and executives and officials say 30 days and the planning for that horizon Some some will say 60 or 90 days Um, nobody knows for sure. Nobody knows Uh, and it depends on so many things including scientific things that we really don't have a handle on So my question is I mean, how do you deal with the possibility? This is going to be longer than 30 days or 60 or 90 or 120 You know, I you guys are really the center of our economy Such as it is the center of our life here in these islands the center of getting up in the morning um Got a plan for an extended period Well, that's why we set up the emergency management process And part of that is to plan for tomorrow and part of that is to plan for the future And you know, we can't see too far out But we can uh, we can Look at what is the worst case scenario? What if this is uh, uh, you know, what if it is six months and how How will that be affected? There are obviously huge numbers of unknowns here It's the novel coronavirus and nobody's ever dealt with this or a pan. I think a pandemic of this Uh magnitude So there's a lot we don't know but what we can do is take some very smart people who we have on our On our team and say what do we need to know for tomorrow? On the week to come and the week after that and we'll plan no disconnections for 30 days and before that expires We'll look at it again. I mean, that's kind of like all we can do but we do have people who have trained and who have planned for these kinds of contingencies and We have also very good resources in terms of knowing what's going on both local and from our national organizations People who will be telling us and showing us what other utilities are doing Uh, so You know, I I will guarantee you there'll be mistakes Uh, I guarantee you we will not be on top of everything that's that happens But we will it won't be for lack of trying and won't be for lack of working at it That's why we use the emergency management. We call it an incident management team That's why we use this process so we can kind of shed some of the the the distractions and make sure We know exactly who's responsible for today tomorrow and and whatever the future may bring. That's great, peter We'll do our best. We'll do our best come down and talk to us about it too. We want to follow it We'll be back anytime because I think information is absolutely critical. I agree. So mitch. Uh, you have the uh, Enviable task of summarizing and saying goodbye. Can you do that? Okay, well quickly summarize it looks like, uh, hawaii electric is on top of the situation right now I think uh, people don't have to stress out about their energy bills. Like peter said, we're not going to cut your lights off So don't stress out about that Uh, the workforce is coming in every day and doing their job. Thank you very much for doing that You can work from home and maybe be more efficient And I think that's it. As you said make my exits short and sweet. So aloha everyone We're out at mitch. You and peter rosek. Thank you gentlemen. Thanks very much. Take care. Aloha wash your hands. Stay safe. Stay well Stay well