Income taxes (Details)	9 Months Ended	12 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2020	Sep. 30, 2019	Dec. 31, 2018
Income Tax Contingency [Line Items]
Effective income tax, percent	17.00%	19.00%
Federal income tax rate	21.00%		35.00%
Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc. and Subsidiaries
Income Tax Contingency [Line Items]
Effective income tax, percent	19.00%	20.00%

Percentage of current income tax expense (benefit) and deferred income tax expense (benefit) pertaining to continuing operations.

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/disclosureRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 740
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 12
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=84230637&loc=d3e32687-109319

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Percentage of domestic federal statutory tax rate applicable to pretax income (loss).

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/disclosureRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 740
-SubTopic 10
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SAB Topic 6.I.Fact.4)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=116825942&loc=d3e330036-122817

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/disclosureRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 740
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 12
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=84230637&loc=d3e32687-109319

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Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

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