Black & Veatch wins as owner’s engineer for West Kaua’i Energy Project (WKEP) in Hawaii

Black & Veatch has been selected by AES Clean Energy (AES) to serve as the owner’s engineer for the pumped storage and hydropower portion of the West Kaua‘i Energy Project in Hawaii. When complete, the overall program will reduce dependency on fossil fuels, offsetting the use of 8.5 million gallons of fossil fuels annually for the more than 70,000 residents.

Located on the Hawaiian island of Kaua‘i, the West Kaua‘i Energy Project (WKEP) is an integrated renewable energy and irrigation project that includes energy production with pumped storage hydropower, conventional hydropower, solar photovoltaic generation, and battery energy storage. The pumped storage portion of the project will pump water from the lower Mānā Reservoir to the upper Pu‘u ‘Ōpae Reservoir using energy production from the solar PV portion of the project. During the evening peak, night time and morning peak hours, water will be sent back to the lower reservoir via gravity penstock from Pu‘u ‘Ōpae, through the Mānā Powerhouse and its 20-MW Pelton turbine to generate renewable power for the grid. 

Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) signed agreements with AES for the development, construction and operation of the cooperative’s solar pumped storage hydro project and a power purchase agreement (PPA) was executed and filed with the Hawai‘i Public Utilities Commission on December 31, 2020. As owner’s engineer, Black & Veatch will support AES in the development of technical design criteria for hydropower and hydraulic structures of the project.