Hawaiian Electric Co. named an executive at Southern California Edison to take over as and chief executive officer of the Honolulu-based utility.

Richard Rosenblum replaces Michael May, who stepped down as president and CEO of Hawaiian Electric.

Rosenblum, 58, has 32 years of experience in all phases of utility operations at Southern California Edison, California's largest electric utility. Most recently, he held the position of senior vice president of generation, responsible for all of SCE's power generation facilities.

During that tenure, Rosenblum helped initiate the nation's largest solar photovoltaic project, which aims to install 250 megawatts of solar generating capacity on commercial rooftops around Southern California.