To address the ongoing electricity crisis in Hawai‘i, in which Hawaiian Electric has instructed residents to limit electricity use and to prepare for rolling blackouts, Honua Bioenergy LLC submitted a letter offering a solution to the Hawai‘i Public Utilities Commission.

This letter asks the Commission immediately bring Hu Honua’s plant online not only in order to swiftly end this electric power crisis, but to ensure over the longer term that Hawai’i Island’s residents they will have reliable and competitive electric power service.

Accompanying the letter was the following statement by Hu Honua’s President:

“Hawai’i Island is in the grips of an electricity crisis, which is evident from rolling blackouts and Hawaiian Electric’s instructions to residents to limit their electricity use and prepare for more unplanned rolling blackouts. Hu Honua’s renewable biomass plant on Hawai’i Island is the solution to resolving this crisis. Our new power plant will bring reliable and affordable energy and prevent future blackouts on the Big Island. Adding this competitive power plant will help Hawai’i Island’s residents reduce their dependance on monopoly provider Hawaiian Electric and its affiliate Hamakua, which have caused today’s electricity crisis. The Hawai’i Public Utilities Commission should act immediately to bring Hu Honua online, to end this electric power crisis and ensure Hawai’i Island’s residents they will have reliable and competitive electric power service in the weeks and months ahead,” said Warren Lee, President of Hu Honua Bioenergy, LLC

Key passages from this letter:

  • For years, there has been a solution for Hawaiian Electric Company’s (HECO) mismanagement of the Island’s electric capacity and supply, but HECO has fought this solution in a determined effort to protect its monopoly over the Island’s electric power supply and to maximize its monopoly profits. It is becoming blindingly obvious that HECO’s monopolization of the firm power generation market on the Big Island has come at the intolerable cost to our residents and businesses of prohibitively high electric rates – the highest rates in the country – and now, literally, HECO’s inability to provide even the basic electric power service needed by our Island community.
  • As the Commission knows, Hu Honua Bioenergy, LLC (HHB) owns a 30 MW firm renewable biomass electric generating facility (Hu Honua) on Hawai‘i Island that has long been ready to provide a new, trustworthy, and dependable supply of electric power for the residents of the Big Island. Hu Honua can provide firm dispatchable electricity 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, night or day, rain or shine.
  • It is now obvious to all of us that Hawai‘i Island is in the grips of an unprecedented electric power reliability crisis that never should have happened. In January and February, the Island’s residents and businesses faced unplanned rolling blackouts. Just last week, HECO announced that residents should expect more unplanned rolling blackouts at any time and that customers need to limit their use of electricity in the weeks and months ahead.
  • Our Island’s crisis is not the result of environmental conditions or an extreme weather event. This crisis was caused by HECO. It is the consequence of HECO’s steadfast refusal for many years now to replace or transition from the Island’s electric power supply that comes from HECO’s own aging, unreliable, and now failing portfolio of oil-burning power plants. Indeed, HECO’s own proven unreliable affiliate Hamakua is the poster child and root cause of the acute electric power reliability crisis on the Island of Hawai‘i today.
  • Ensuring that the residents and businesses of Hawai‘i Island have the kind of reliable, dependable electric service that a competitive market would deliver is this Commission’s highest responsibility. As of today, HECO’s over a decade of mismanagement of the Island’s electric power capacity and electric power supply for the purposes of protecting and extending its monopoly over firm electric power generation on the Big Island has prevented the Commission from achieving its animating purpose of promoting competition and ensuring reliable electric power services at a cost that is affordable for the Island’s residents.
  • The Commission should act immediately to bring Hu Honua online, to ensure and assure the residents of the Island of Hawai‘i that they will have reliable and competitive electric power service on the Island in the months and years ahead.  To this end, the Commission should direct HECO to immediately enter into expedited negotiations with Hu Honua to forge a long-term contract for Commission approval that will quickly alleviate the electric power reliability crisis on the Island of Hawai‘i. Hu Honua has already prepared a contract with fair pricing that will provide a just, reasonable, and competitive solution to the current crisis for HECO, the PUC, and most importantly, the residents of the Big Island. Hu Honua is prepared to enter into expedited negotiations with HECO immediately and accelerate commissioning of the Hu Honua plant so as to bring to an end the electric reliability crisis that besets our Island today and promises to beset our Island for years to come.

Please find the full letter linked here.