US approves $95 million for Hawaii's electric grid after wildfires

The U.S. Department of Energy will provide $95 million to Hawaiian Electric (HE.N) through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to strengthen the power grids on Hawaii's wildfire-ravaged islands, the White House said on Wednesday.

The island of Maui was devastated earlier this month after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century swept through the resort town of Lahaina, leaving 115 people dead and 338 missing.

"This investment will help reduce the likelihood of outages, reduce restoration times following outages, reduce risk of wildfire events, and increase grid operational resilience," the White House said in a statement.

The federal funding would pay for half of the Hawaiian Electric's proposed $190 million climate adaptation plan and would help cut its cost to customers in half, the company in a press release.