I wanted to provide some context and hopefully shed some light on this.
1) what exactly was HECO at the start. A publicly traded company? A governmental entity? Reading between the lines, it was a limited liability corporation. And they do have shares, but are closely held. And who owned those shares, how many there were, and when HECO became a publicly traded company would be really interesting. It seems that HECO  was granted a " franchise"; or the right to a monopoly, originally my the monarchy. Not uncommon.
/. Burnt you also report the establishment of a central power plant. These were incredibly important in the development of the exit rich industry. At about the same time Edison established a central power station in NYC with 6 generators powered by 200 hp steam engines, serving 200 customers. These and the wires nvolved made electric power a "natural monopoly" that was either state owned or regulated. And even an oligarchy needs to decide that.