Electric bills will decline statewide

Power bills for Hawaiian Electric Co. customers across the state will drop, according to the company.

Oahu will see a 4.1 percent drop in bills, about $150.11, down from last month's $156.57. The price is an estimate of the typical residential bill of 600 kilowatt-hours.

Big Island customers will see a 4 percent drop to about $207.96, down from $216.66 last month.

Maui customers will see the largest drop — 10.4 percent — to $161.76, down from $180.57 last month.

HECO, Sacramento share solar grant

Hawaiian Electric Co. and Sacramento Municipal Utility District will share a $2.9 million research grant to study ways to increase and manage more photovoltaic generation while maintaining power grids.

The grant comes from the California Solar Initiative Research, Development, Deployment and Demonstration Program. Both utilities will match the grant by up to $1.3 million of in-kind support. The research effort will use new solar monitoring hardware and develop forecasting software. The new systems will be tested in California and Hawaii.

Go! Mokulele passenger traffic falls

Go! Mokulele carried fewer passengers in March than a year ago but filled a greater percentage of its planes.

The interisland carrier, citing softness in interisland travel, transported 57,952 passengers, down 9.6 percent from 64,093 a year ago. Its load factor, or percentage of seats filled, rose 3.1 percentage points to 69.7 percent from 66.6 percent.

Revenue passenger miles, or one paying passenger transported one mile, fell 17.6 percent to 7.7 million from 9.3 million. Available seat miles, or one seat transported one mile, dropped 21.4 percent to 11 million from 14 million.

Go! Mokulele's on-time performance was 80.8 percent.

Hawaiian Air tops in punctuality

Hawaiian Airlines, which has led all U.S. carriers in on-time performance for each of the past six years, continued that trend in February as it finished first in punctuality with 88.2 percent of its flights arriving as scheduled.

The airline also was first in fewest canceled flights with an industry-low 0.3 percent. In addition, Hawaiian ranked second for fewest misplaced bags with 1.89 mishandled-baggage reports for every 1,000 passengers served.

China poised to let currency rise

HONG KONG » The Chinese government is preparing to announce in the coming days that it will allow its currency to strengthen slightly and vary more from day to day, people with knowledge of the emerging consensus in Beijing said yesterday. The move would help ease tension with the Obama administration about the huge trade deficit the United States has with China.

China's exports have been bolstered by its policy of keeping its currency, known as the renminbi or yuan, pegged at a nearly fixed rate to the dollar. Many members of Congress and many economists say that by spending several hundred billion dollars each year to hold down the value of the renminbi, China has made its exports extremely competitive in foreign markets and taken away sales from manufacturers in the United States and other countries.

ON THE MOVE

  Alexander & Baldwin has named Mark A. Beers as manager in corporate planning. He was previously an assistant controller for the company's Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. on Maui and has extensive corporate planning experience with Ingersoll Rand.

Sea Life Park Hawaii has appointed Claudette Bond Springer as marketing manager. She has more than 20 years of promotion, event and marketing experience and was previously a sales and marketing coordinator for Mandara Spa.

Prudential Advantage Realty has announced the following new residential sales professionals:

» Dianne Bosworth was previously in sales and marketing with Island Title Corp. as well as director of front office operations with Hyatt Regency Waikiki Resort and Spa.

» Sean Takamori was previously a substance abuse/family counselor with Salvation Army Addiction Treatment Services.

» Glenn Ikeda was previously a buyer and divisional merchandiser with Nordstorm's Hawaii as well as a business partner with a company that purchases, improves and resells homes.

» Davelyn Tengan was previously a retail sales manager for Clearwire Hawaii on Oahu and Maui as well as a sales and marketing executive assistant for Waikoloa Beach Marriott.