Hawaiian Electric Company Inc., Hawaii Electric Light Company Inc., and Maui Electric Company Limited filed an integrated grid planning report that takes a new approach to advance the island’s clean energy goals, according to the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission’s July 12 press release. The report proposes to combine “historically separate planning processes” for generation, transmission, and distribution while integrating competitive procurement. The plan intends to determine grid needs and develop an efficient and cost-effective portfolio of solutions. Integrating the planning process is expected to facilitate diverse distributed and grid-scale resources to provide generation and ancillary services, resulting in customer savings. The companies propose a two-year planning cycle starting 2019 to finalize the first integrated plan by 2020. Comments on the proposal are due by September 14.