Why Is My Electric Bill So High In Hawaii?

Back in September 2022 Oahu shut down the last coal-fired power plant in the State of Hawaii as part of the plan to meet the Hawaii’s mandate to transition the state to 100% renewable energy by 2045.

The coal-fired power plant produced about 11% of the state's electricity and the plan was to replace it with a Tesla Megapacks charged with industrial-scale solar and wind farms. Said industrial-scale solar and wind farms were not ready by the time the coal-fired power plant was shut down which means the electricity for the Tesla Megapacks would have to be generated by even more expensive oil-fired power plants.

This was a transition Hawaii was unprepared for and the people of Oahu are paying for poor planning with short-term pain at their wallet when electricity prices were already triple the United States average, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Mostly because the anomaly of Hawaii being the only U.S. state importing 25% of its oil from Russia for power generation with the Russia-Ukraine War seriously affecting our state.

Two years ago we thought we’d be saving money whilst joining Tesla's mission is to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy. Today it costs more to charge our car in Hawaii than an equivalent gas vehicle….

What are some ways you guys are coping with the runaway rising costs of living in Hawaii?