Hawaiian Electric Industries’ subsidiaries are beginning the US state’s largest procurement to date for new clean power generation to move Hawaii closer to its goal of using 100% renewable energy by 2045.
With the approval of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), the companies have issued requests for proposals for 900MW of renewable energy capacity.
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 solicitation includes estimated targets of technologies equal to 594MW of solar for Oahu, 135MW for Maui and up to 203MW 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, which can be supplied 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 180MW coal-fired AES Hawaii plant in Campbell Industrial Park due to close by September 2022.
The power station meets 16% of Oahu’s peak demand.
For Maui, new renewable generation and storage is needed for the planned retirement of Kahului power plant by the end of 2024.
Hawaiian Electric chief executive Alan Oshima said: “Hawaiian Electric has made huge strides toward our renewable energy goals and will end this year achieving a renewable generation portfolio of 30%.
“This effort is a big step in accelerating the transition from fossil fuels to locally-sourced clean energy resources. For customers, the benefits are simple: cleaner energy at lower prices.”
A separate request for proposals for grid services from customer-sited distributed energy resources will help system operators manage reliability of modern electric grids with diverse, dynamic inputs and outputs.
The subsidiaries of Hawaiian Electric are seeking grid services such as fast frequency response and capacity for Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii islands with targets ranging from 4MW to 119MW, creating an opportunity for customers to play a direct role in modernising the electric grid and integrating more renewable energy.
Final requests for proposals are expected to be issued later this year for the equivalent of 4MW of solar or 3.6MW of small wind for Molokai, paired with energy storage, and an equivalent up to 9.5MW of solar paired with energy storage for Lanai, pending approval by the PUC.
Due to the complexity of projects sought, the PUC has chosen independent observers and a technical adviser to assure that all proposals – including ‘self-build’ projects proposed by the companies – are treated fairly and equitably and will not interact to create technical problems on island grids.
The final requests for proposals are the result of collaboration led by the PUC with participation of Hawaiian Electric, the Consumer Advocate, and other stakeholders.