MEDIA RELEASE

Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. has reported second quarter 2010 consolidated net income for common stock of $29.3 million, or $0.31 diluted earnings per share (EPS), compared to $15.5 million, or $0.17 diluted EPS for the second quarter of 2009.

“Lower credit costs and lower operating expenses at our banking operations were mainly responsible for the improvement in our second quarter results,” said Constance H. Lau, HEI president and chief executive officer.

“At the utility, we are seeing modest recovery from a long period of under earning our authorized rates of return. Rate relief granted over the last year was largely offset by higher operation, maintenance, financing and depreciation expenses,” Lau said.

“At the bank, we are excited to have completed the last major component of the performance improvement project with the successful conversion of our data processing systems in the second quarter. We continue to see the benefits of this project in our reported results and are pleased to report a solid return on assets of 1.32% for the second quarter,” she said.

Electric utility net income for common stock for the second quarter of 2010 was $17.6 million compared to $15.5 million in the second quarter of 2009.

The primary drivers were rate relief granted in our 2009 rate case on Oahu of $10 million (after tax) as well as savings from fuel efficiency.

The primary offsets (after tax) were: (1) $6 million higher operations and maintenance (O&M) expenses, excluding demand-side management (DSM) program costs; and (2) $6 million higher financing costs and depreciation expense primarily due to generating units put into service in the latter part of 2009.

Kilowatthour sales were down 1.1% compared with the same quarter last year due to slightly warmer than normal weather in the second quarter of 2009. Subsequent to our original forecast of a 0.9% decrease in 2010 sales relative to 2009, our outlook for the economy has improved and we now expect 2010 sales to be approximately flat when compared to 2009.

O&M expenses were up 11% over the same quarter last year. This increase was driven primarily by higher retirement costs and operating costs for the new biofuel generating plant which commenced service in the latter part of 2009. The actual year-to-date O&M increase of 9%2 was lower than our estimate of a 16%2 increase for the year primarily due to timing of expenditures. O&M expenses for the year are now expected to be slightly lower than the 16%2 increase originally estimated.

Bank net income for the second quarter of 2010 was $16.1 million, compared to $4.0 million for the same quarter last year and $13.7 million in the first quarter of 2010.

HEI supplies power to over 400,000 customers or 95% of Hawaii’s population through its electric utilities, Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc., Hawaii Electric Light Company, Inc. and Maui Electric Company, Limited and provides a wide array of banking and other financial services to consumers and businesses through American Savings Bank, F.S.B., one of Hawaii’s largest financial institutions.

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www.hei.com/