Unsweet Relief…
This week, Hawaiian Electric Industries (parent company of HECO and MECO) announced a second-quarter profit of $29.3 million. That’s almost twice as much as HEI made in the second quarter of 2009.
So what drove the increase?
“The primary drivers were rate relief…as well as savings from fuel efficiency,” according to an August 9 company release. The second bit is self-explanatory, but what’s “rate relief”?
Per the financial dictionary at thefreedictionary.com: rate relief An action taken to allow a regulated company, such as a utility, to charge higher rates (that is, the prices it charges its customers) so that it can generate greater revenues. Public utilities frequently seek rate relief by filing a request for rate increases with public regulatory bodies. The utility’s success in obtaining rate relief has a very heavy impact on the value of its shares.
‘Guess relief, like most things, is relative.
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