Hawaiian Electric Companies issue call for 900 MW of renewable projects
The Hawaiian Electric Companies are beginning Hawaii's largest procurement effort for renewable energy resources to end the use of coal and reduce reliance on imported oil for power generation, moving the state closer to its goal of using 100 percent renewable energy by 2045.
With the approval of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), the companies issued requests for proposals for renewable energy and grid services from developers locally and globally. Details are at https://www.ippjournal.com/business-opportunities.
Approximately 900 megawatts of new renewables or renewables paired with storage – generating about 2 million megawatt-hours annually – are sought. It is among the largest single renewable energy procurements undertaken by a U.S. utility.
This includes estimated targets of technologies equal to 594 MW of solar for Oahu, 135 MW for Maui and up to 203 MW for Hawaii Island, depending on whether other renewable energy projects are available on that island.
- Projects for Maui must include energy storage. On Hawaii Island, solar must include storage but is optional for other technologies. On Oahu, pairing generation with energy storage is optional. Storage on Oahu and Maui is also being sought to replace firm generating units. This can be provided by renewable generation paired with storage or standalone storage. Contingency storage is also being sought for Oahu and Hawaii islands.
- For Oahu, new renewable generation and storage is needed to replace the 180-megawatt coal-fired AES Hawaii plant in Campbell Industrial Park due to close by September 2022. It is the largest single generator on Oahu, meeting 16 percent of peak demand.
- For Maui, new renewable generation and storage is needed for the planned retirement of Kahului Power Plant by the end of 2024.
Pending negotiations of contracts and final approvals, the first renewable generation projects from this phase would come online in 2022 with the total amount of megawatts expected by 2025. The timeline for proposals is:
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| Final RFP is Issued | August 22, 2019 |
| Proposal due date | November 5, 2019 at 2 pm HST |
| Companies select priority list | January 17, 2020 |
| Best and final offers due | January 24, 2020 |
| Final award group named | May 8, 2020 |
| Contract negotiations begin | May 15, 2020 |
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