good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. Annual Shareholder Meeting. At this time, the meeting will begin. And it is my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Jeff Watanabe. Sir, the floor is yours.
Aloha and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It's now shortly after ten a. M. Here in Hawaii, and I'd like to call the meeting to order. Welcome you all to the thirty seventh Annual Shareholder Meeting of Hawaiian Electric Industries.
My name is Jeff Watanabe, and I'm the Non Executive Chair of the HEI Board. Thank you very much for joining us today on our first virtual meeting, which is the result of the various COVID-nineteen related restrictions and our desire to provide as much access as possible to all of you. You will notice some differences from our normal in person shareholder meetings simply due to the nature of the online platform, but please know that our focus is to ensure that our meeting is both informative and clear. Our meeting today is to conduct our annual meeting business and update you on your company. The agenda for today's meeting is displayed on your screen and available under meeting materials at the bottom of your screen.
I'd like to run through the agenda with you now. The business portion of this meeting will begin with an announcement of a quorum. After we introduce the directors present today, we will consider five proposals being presented. One, to elect your class three directors and a class one director. Two, to hold an advisory vote on HEI's executive compensation program.
Three, to approve amendments to your articles of incorporation to declassify your board. And four, to approve amendments to your articles of incorporation to adopt a majority voting standard in uncontested director elections. And finally, to ratify the appointment of Deloitte and Touche as our independent auditor for 2020. After we open the polls for electronic voting today, we will recess the meeting and reconvene it later to announce the results of your vote. While we tally the votes, I will ask Connie Lau, HEI's President and Chief Executive Officer, to present the report on the company, followed by a question and answer period.
At any time during the meeting, please feel free to type in your question on your screen. Out of consideration for others, please limit yourself to one question. We may not be able to answer every question, but we will do our best to provide a response to as many as possible and would be happy to address any unanswered questions through our Investor Relations department. Please note that this meeting is being recorded. However, no one attending via the webcast is permitted to use any audio recording device.
After the question and answer period, we will reconvene to announce the preliminary vote results. The meeting is scheduled to adjourn by 11AM. I'd like to turn your attention to the meeting rules, which are available under the meeting materials tab at the bottom of your screen. If you haven't already read them, please take a moment to do so. These rules will allow us to conduct an orderly meeting while giving as many people as possible an opportunity to ask questions.
Now I'd like to proceed with the business portion of the meeting. First, I'd like to ask Kurt Murall, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of the company to report on the call and notice of the meeting.
Thank you, Jeff. The Board of Directors fixed 02/28/2020 as the record date for determining the shareholders entitled to vote at this meeting. On 03/26/2020, the company commenced the mailing of the notice of the meeting to shareholders of record. Approximately 93% of the common stock is present or represented by proxy this morning. I therefore declare that a quorum of shareholders is present at the meeting and qualified to act on all matters set forth in the meeting notice.
A list of the record shareholders entitled to vote at this meeting and the minutes of last year's Annual Meeting of Shareholders, which was held on 05/07/2019, are available for inspection by any shareholder.
Back to you, Jeff. Thanks, Curt. Please allow me to introduce your HEI directors who are in attendance today. Let's begin with our HEI director nominees who are up for election. The nominees for HEI class three directors with terms expiring at the twenty twenty three annual meeting are all incumbent directors.
They include Peggy Fowler, former Chief Executive Officer of Portland General Electric with thirty five years of executive leadership and who is the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee Chair Keith Russell, President of Russell Financial, for the last nineteen years, who brings to the board over thirty seven years of banking and financial institution experience. He also serves as the chair of American Savings Bank's Risk Committee. Eva Zlotbica, Managing Director of Value Act Spring Fund and Head of Stewardship for Value Act Capital, who has over a decade of investment expertise in ESG matters and related strategic initiative oversight. The nominee for HEI Class I Director with a term expiring at the twenty twenty one annual meeting is Maika Kuni. Maika is president and chief executive officer of the Hawaii Community Foundation, which is a recognized leader in Hawaii having stewarded Hawaii's oldest and largest community foundation and Hawaii's largest land trust.
Maika is also an incumbent director. Continuing HAI class one and class two directors with terms expiring in 2021 or 2022 are Richard Dahl, Connie Lau, Celeste Connors, Admiral Tom Fargo, Mary Powell, and Jim Solace. Also in attendance is Joe Young, lead client service partner, and Chris Montay, audit and assurance partner with Deloitte and Touche, our independent auditors. Now I will present the matters to be voted upon as the polls are now open. Proposal one is the election of three class three directors to serve for a three year term expiring at the twenty twenty three annual meeting of shareholders, and one Class I Director to serve for a one year term expiring at the twenty twenty one Annual Meeting of Shareholders.
Proposal two, an advisory vote to approve the compensation for HEI's named executive officers. Proposal three, the amendment of the HEI articles of incorporation to declassify the board of directors. Proposal four, amendment to the HEI articles of incorporation to adopt a majority voting standard in uncontested director elections. And proposal five, the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte and Touche LLP as HEI's independent registered public accountant for 2020. We may now vote on proposals.
Any stockholder who hasn't yet voted or wishes to change their vote may do so by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions there. If you have already sent in your proxy or voted via telephone or Internet and do not wish to change your vote, you do not need to do anything at this time. Your vote has already been tallied. Thank you for voting. The polls are now closed.
We will now recess the formal portion of the meeting while the votes are tallied and Connie presents her report. I will then reconvene the meeting to announce the vote results. Connie?
Thank you, Jeff. Aloha, everyone, and mahalo. Thank you for joining us today. We hope all of you are safe and well. I'd like to begin by introducing our company's key senior officers.
First, from HEI, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Greg Hazleton. Representing Hawaiian Electric, President and CEO, Scott Hsu. Representing American Savings Bank, President and CEO, Rich Wacker. And from our newest subsidiary, Pacific Current, President Scott Valentino. Our thoughts are with everyone affected by COVID-nineteen.
We're grateful for the healthcare workers on the front lines combating the disease and the many others providing needed supplies and services as we weather this pandemic together. I'll begin with an overview, including COVID-nineteen impacts here in Hawaii, plans for reopening our state economy, and how our companies are well positioned to weather this pandemic, and then we'll address any questions that have been submitted. Again, you can use the link at the bottom of your screen to ask a question. Hawaii, along with the rest of the world, is facing an unprecedented challenge from the COVID-nineteen pandemic, and we're especially mindful of the essential roles that our companies play. Through our utility, we provide reliable electricity to keep our hospitals, homes, and essential businesses running, And through our bank, we help ensure that money keeps flowing through our economy.
I'm proud of the dedication of our employees and thank them for continuing to provide these essential services to our customers and communities throughout this challenging time, even with personal risk to themselves and their families. It's times like these when our companies shine and our employees are true heroes helping ensure that our residents and businesses make it through this crisis. Continuing to provide these vital services and protecting the health of our employees and customers has been a core focus. The public and private sectors here in Hawaii have pulled together to collaborate on how to reopen our economy safely for both residents and visitors, and also to shape what we want our economy to look like in the future. Our company's leaders are deeply involved in these efforts.
In addition, Alan Oshima, our former Hawaiian Electric CEO who retired just a couple of months ago, was tapped by our Governor, Ige, to coordinate and navigate our state's economic and community recovery efforts. As we restart our economy, as a state, we're focused on ensuring the investments we make move us even further toward a more sustainable economy. As a company, we're focused on how we can help support and advance our state's recovery. We continue to partner with stakeholders to progress clean energy projects and identify opportunities to rebuild our economy with Hawaii's green economy goals in mind. And we remain committed to our state's 100% renewable portfolio standard and carbon neutrality goals.
We entered this crisis with a strong balance sheet, good liquidity, and strong fundamentals, which are serving us well to weather the challenges of COVID-nineteen. Our utility has delivered power for our state for one hundred and twenty eight years, operating through many different economic and social conditions, and we look forward to serving our state for many more years. Our bank has served Hawaii for ninety five years and has a conservative risk culture, lending practices, and portfolio. These attributes helped ASB perform well compared to other banks during the February and position it well for the challenge at hand, too. Across our HEI family of companies, we have a strong and dedicated leadership team with the experience and judgment to guide our companies through this period.
Our employees have been real troopers throughout. At Hawaiian Electric, they've continued to be on the job serving our state. More than ever, we understand that providing safe, reliable electric service is critical for households, businesses, our first responders, and healthcare professionals. We suspended customer disconnections for nonpayment early on and have extended that through the June. And we are helping customers with payment arrangements.
As our residents shelter at home, keeping our customers connected during this crisis is essential. At American Savings Bank, supporting our customers has included providing deferral and forbearance options for loans and waiving a number of fees. American has also played a big role in securing federal stimulus funds for Hawaii small businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP. Bank teammates literally worked around the clock to secure PPP loans for small businesses, both our own customers and non customers, so they could continue paying their employees and other essential bills. We're proud that Americans secured over $370,000,000 in federal loans for approximately 3,600 of Hawaii's small businesses, employing roughly 46,000 individuals.
This makes a huge difference in the lives of those individuals and their families. Our financial soundness also helps support our dividend. Earlier this year, our board approved our second consecutive dividend increase, raising our dividend by 3% from $0.32 to $0.33 per share per quarter, equivalent to an annual dividend of $1.32 a share each year. And your board yesterday declared another quarterly dividend at the new rate of $0.33 per share. We're proud to have paid dividends continuously since 1901, and those of you who are shareholders of ours during the two thousand and eight-two thousand and nine financial crisis may remember that we continued to pay and did not cut our dividend during that time.
The stability of our dividend for our shareholders remains a key priority for us. Now I'd like to share a few of our recent accomplishments before wrapping up my comments. Hawaiian Electric continues to forge a path toward 100% renewable energy that is closely watched by utilities across the nation and the world. 2019 saw a 21% jump in solar generation capacity over 2018, the largest annual increase in solar capacity on Hawaiian Electric's five island systems. The completion of large grid scale projects and the addition of nearly 3,500 residential solar systems contributed to the increase from seven forty five cumulative installed megawatts in 2018 to nine zero two megawatts at the 2019.
Hawaii continues to lead the nation in rooftop solar adoption. Currently, there are about 3,500,000 solar panels producing electricity across our five island grids. As part of the first stage of an aggressive quest for renewable energy projects, Hawaiian Electric signed power purchase agreements for eight grid scale solar plus storage projects totaling two sixty megawatts across our service territories. When these projects come into service, starting in 2021, they will provide electricity equal to that needed by about 116,000 homes annually. Some 75 bids were received in the second stage of this quest for renewable energy.
The company sought more than 900 megawatts of generation, generation plus storage, standalone storage, and grid support services. The winning projects are expected to begin contract negotiations this month. For its leadership in many areas that are transforming the utility industry today, Hawaiian Electric was named Utility of the Year in 2019 by respected utility industry publication Utility Dive. Turning our attention to American Savings Bank, our bank team works hard to support a strong Hawaii economy and provide value for its customers, as evidenced by its hard work on the PPP loans I spoke about earlier. In 2019, American invested more than $2,000,000,000 in our community providing funds to help customers grow their businesses, plan for retirement or their children's education, buy a first home, or invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy systems.
In 2019, American also completed its move to its new ASB campus, the first new office building in the Downtown Honolulu area in the past twenty five years, helping improve our urban core for the whole community and providing an efficient, collaborative workplace for its teammates. Americans' focus on its teammates and their work environment is one of the many reasons why the bank has been recognized as one of Hawaii's best places to work for eleven years in a row. Our new Pacific Current subsidiary is focused on its mission to help advance our state's clean energy and sustainability goals by investing in sustainable infrastructure, including clean transportation, water, agriculture, and energy. In 2019, Pacific Current continued its work to bring renewable energy systems online at five University of Hawaii locations, helping bring each campus closer to its net zero energy goal. It also began using locally sourced biodiesel for part of its fuel needs at its Hamakua Energy Plant on Hawaii Island, supporting local jobs and the island's energy independence.
In 2019, Pacific Current also partnered with California based Evercharge to provide more options for EV charging in multiunit dwellings and office buildings. HEI continues to be recognized as one of Hawaii's most charitable companies. In 2019, our family of companies contributed more than $2,400,000 to a variety of community causes, and our employees volunteered more than twenty seven thousand hours of their time to serve our local communities. In 2020, the AGI Charitable Foundation, our companies, and our employees have together pledged more than $500,000 to help support local families negatively impacted by COVID-nineteen. We partnered with many community organizations, including Aloha United Way, Hawaii Food Bank, Hawaii Meals on Wheels, and the Hawaii Community Foundation.
Speaking of community, service, and leadership, today is sadly Jeff's last meeting as our chairman. Jeff has served as a director at HEI for thirty three years and has served as our board chair since 02/2006. Thank you, Jeff, not only for leading Hawaiian Electric Industries, but for everything you've done for the state of Hawaii. At HEI and our subsidiaries, Hawaiian Electric, American Savings Bank, and Pacific Current, we strive to be a catalyst for a better Hawaii, for a stronger economy, a cleaner environment, and thriving communities while delivering long term value for you, our shareholders. Thank you for your continued support of our companies as we work hard toward a prosperous and sustainable future for Hawaii and your company.
We'd now like to address any questions you may have.
Thanks very much Connie. I just wanted to add my thanks for the many years of association we've had and express my appreciation your leadership and friendship. Thank you. Back to our questions and answers. If you would like to ask a question, please type in your questions where prompted on your screen.
Julie Smolinski, your Investor Relations Director will read the questions out loud. To be fair to everyone, please limit yourself to one question. If you do have questions or comments about a personal matter, please contact our Investor Relations department. Their contact information is available on our website and in the rules. Julie?
All right. So we do have a number of questions. I'm going to start by addressing one that came in. We have a request from a shareholder asking that when we give the results of the vote that we provide the percentage of shareholders voting for those items. And we'll certainly do that at that time.
So starting on with the rest of the questions here, First, I'll turn to Scott Sue for two questions here that are related. One, are you looking at the cogen at Pu'u Nene to produce electricity from organic waste as in the past? Have you considered planting grass crops to fuel the generator? And a related question, are you involved in repurposing the land that HCNS has stopped using? Any pilot project or investments with the idle land?
Hi everybody. Thank you. This is Scott Siu from Hawaiian Electric. So the utility is not itself involved in any plans concerning the former HC and S power plant facility at Pu'inene on Maui. As some of you may know, Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar or HC and S, they shut that, they shut down the sugar mill and the power plant back in 2017 and correspondingly, of course, that means that they ceased producing power.
And they used to produce power by burning a gas or sugarcane waste. But if an entity does pursue future development of renewable power at the site, we would certainly consider it as we administer our competitive renewable procurement processes going forward. Likewise, we're not involved in repurposing in any discussions about repurposing the HC And S land. However, we are aware that a company called Mahi Pono purchased 41,000 acres of HCNS land back in late twenty eighteen for the purposes of developing diversified ag. So that's the answer to those questions, Julie.
Great. Thank you. So moving on to a question here for our board chair, Jeff Watanabe. So the question is, normally I would have voted for eliminating classes of directors. However, after the NextEra debacle and learning that ValueAct, a major investor who has at least one seat on the board, and Jeffrey Ubman, an AES director and Value Act chief executive, wants an outsider on the board when Connie Lau retires and has spoken out against her, I feel this is a backdoor to putting Value Act in charge in the future.
Please explain which shareholders were consulted when this proposal was formed and your current relationship with Oven and ValueAct. Jeff?
Thank you, Julie. When ValueAct first became a shareholder at HEI, as it would most shareholders who have requested contact with the company, we met with them. We met with the Value Act spring fund people. And there were some significant and frank discussions that occurred following that period of time. And after a long period of discussion and trying to understand his point of view and Value Act's point of view, we came to the conclusion that our long term objectives were in alignment.
As a result of those discussions, we entered into a cooperation agreement with Value Act's Spring Fund. Your question about Eva Slotnica, we believe that she was an excellent addition to a 10 member board at HEI. And we have put in place stringent conflict of interest processes to be sure that the interests of the company and its shareholders are protected. So that's the answer to your question.
Okay. Moving
on to the next one, Jeff, I believe this is for you as well. How can the board and the executive team of the company justify their large salaries during this difficult challenging time? Are they following the lead of other large companies by giving up their salaries during the coronavirus?
One of the important duties of the board is to make sure that executive compensation is aligned with shareholder interests. We have an independent committee of board members who deal with the issue of executive compensation. They use an independent consultant and make sure that whatever is done on the compensation side is in line with peers. There is, I will tell you, constant vigilance about what's happening during these unprecedented times. We also provide shareholders an opportunity to provide their input on a regular annual basis on the issue of executive comp, and I can tell you that this is an issue that will be part of the agenda of the board and the compensation committee.
Thank you.
Thank you, Jeff.
Now we have a question that I'll turn over to Connie Lau, our CEO. Are there any buyout plans by NextEra or others?
Thank you, Julie. As most of you know, we don't comment on any potential merger or acquisition plans. But what I can tell you is that the company is not for sale.
All right. And one more question. This one is for Scott Sue, CEO of Hawaiian Electric. What is the status of the ward development proposal?
Yeah, hi Julie. So back in 2018 the company had gone forward in asking for proposals to see if we could find a developer interested in purchasing our ward property, where we have a base yard, warehousing, we have a substation there, as well as offices for a lot of our engineers and other employees. As part of that overall plan though, we needed to locate an alternative site that would be suitable to support these ongoing operations. Long and short of it is that while there was interest on the part of certain developers looking at the Ward Avenue site, we were not able to locate a suitable alternative location to relocate to. So it really had to all be done together in a so called like a package deal.
And long and short of it is we continue to use our Ward Avenue site as is, however, we are always looking at how we can use the property in the most effective manner possible. So it is part of our overall real estate planning.
Thank you, Scott. And there are no further questions. I'll turn it back over to you, Jeff.
Thanks, Julie. We will now reconvene the business portion of the meeting to announce the vote results. In accordance with shareholder instructions, the preliminary vote report shows 98% of the shares voting have voted in favor of all Class III directors and 98 for the Class I director up for election this year. 95% in favor of the executive compensation proposal, and 99% in favor of amending HEI's articles of incorporation to declassify the Board of Directors. 99% in favor of amending HEI's amended and restated articles of incorporation to adopt the majority voting standard in uncontested elections, and 99% for our independent auditors Deloitte and Touche.
So I'm pleased to announce that all proposals are approved and we can adjourn. We will be reporting the final vote results in a Form eight ks to be filled within four business days. Thank you all for joining us on our first virtual meeting. Mahalo and Aloha.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This does conclude today's shareholder meeting. Thank you for your participation and have a wonderful day.