US power utilities NextEra Energy and Hawaiian Electric Industries (HEI) have terminated their plans to merge, as their proposed merger was just rejected by the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission's (PUC).
The merger was announced in December 2014 and secured the approval of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in March 2015. However, the Hawaii PUC estimated that the US$4.3bn merger would be too risky for consumers as rate credits were based on unrealistic assumptions about the future.
Hawaii Electric expected the merger to bring financing for the modernisation of its electricity grid and for the development of renewable energies and to lower operating costs. The decision is also likely to cancel the LNG contract signed with Tilbury LNG (Canada) for 0.8 Mt/year over the 2021-2041 period, which was pending the approval of the proposed merger of Hawaiian Electric and NextEra Energy.
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