How HECO's New BYOD+ Program Makes Clean Energy More Accessible Than Ever

Hawaiian Electric’s BYOD+ program is a substantial upgrade to the original Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program, the grid services incentive that pays homeowners for allowing their solar and battery system to support the grid during peak demand. The new version increases incentives, extends the commitment term, and removes the island-by-island caps that limited earlier enrollment.

For households weighing whether to add a battery to an existing solar system, or to size a battery into a new install, BYOD+ changes the financial calculation considerably.

What changed from the original BYOD program

The original BYOD program offered modest incentives with a hard cap that limited the benefit for most households. BYOD+ addresses several of those limitations directly.

• Longer term. The program now runs for five years, up from three, giving Hawaiian Electric more grid planning certainty in exchange for a longer participant commitment.
• Statewide access. Enrollment is no longer restricted by island-specific caps, so residents on Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii Island compete for the same statewide capacity rather than a smaller local allocation.
• Split capacity. The program’s 50 MW of total capacity is divided evenly: 25 MW reserved for low and moderate income (LMI) households and 25 MW for everyone else, so the enhanced incentives are not absorbed entirely by higher-income participants.
• Upfront payment. Instead of spreading a performance incentive out in small monthly increments, BYOD+ pays the incentive as a single upfront amount at enrollment.

The incentive numbers

The dollar amounts are the headline change, and they are large enough to shift the math on adding storage to a system.

For a typical 6 kW residential system, that is the difference between a flat $500 payment under the old program and $2,400 for a standard household or $4,800 for a qualifying LMI household under BYOD+, nearly five times more in the standard case.

Who qualifies for LMI incentives

LMI eligibility is aligned with the Hawaii Green Infrastructure Authority’s Green Energy Money $aver (GEM$) standards: households with income below 140% of the Area Median Income, adjusted for household size, generally qualify. For a family of four in Honolulu, that works out to roughly $153,000 or less based on current AMI figures, though these numbers are updated periodically and should be verified at the time you apply.

Certification is handled through a streamlined self-certification process coordinated with HGIA, and Hawaiian Electric reports enrollment data in its monthly Community Energy Reports so the public can track how evenly the incentive is reaching LMI households.

What happens if you need to exit early

Leaving the program before the five-year term ends triggers a pro-rated repayment of the upfront incentive. That repayment requirement is waived if you transition into another approved Hawaiian Electric grid services program instead of dropping out entirely, which gives participants some flexibility as new programs come online. Any transition to a future program also adjusts the upfront incentive to prevent double-counting the same battery capacity across two incentive streams.

Why this matters alongside net metering changes

Full retail net energy metering has been closed to new Oahu customers for some time, which means the value of power you export to the grid is lower than the value of power you store and use yourself. BYOD+ incentives are a separate revenue stream on top of that math: you are paid for making your battery available to support the grid, independent of how you use it the rest of the time. Combined with the Powerwall or Enphase battery you already run for backup and self-consumption, the enrollment incentive is close to free money for capacity you would want anyway.

Getting your system ready

Not every existing solar and battery system is configured to participate in a grid services program without some adjustment to export scheduling or inverter settings. Before enrollment opens, it is worth having your system reviewed so you know exactly what capacity qualifies and what your expected incentive will be.

How Independent Energy Hawaii can help

We help homeowners assess eligibility for standard or LMI incentives, size systems and battery capacity specifically to maximize BYOD+ value, and manage the application and self-certification paperwork. If you already have solar with battery storage, we can review your current setup for BYOD+ eligibility; if you are still planning a system, we can design it around the program from the start.

Contact Independent Energy Hawaii or call (808) 460-6015 to find out what BYOD+ could mean for your household.