Hawaiian Electric to seek renewables proposals for Hawaii Island

Hawaiian Electric this week said it is launching the third stage of its renewable energy procurement for Hawaii Island to support the state of Hawaii’s decarbonisation targets.

The utility has submitted a draft request for proposals (RfP) to the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (PUC) based on the July 2021 Hawaii Island Near-Term Grid Needs Assessment report.

According to the documents filed, it will be seeking proposals to acquire up to 206 GWh annually of energy and up to 95 MW of capacity on the eastern portion of Hawaii Island. Proposals could include new renewable dispatchable generation projects with or without energy storage, extensions of existing resources after current contract terms, standalone energy storage projects and aggregated customer-sited distributed energy resources projects.

Subject to PUC approval, bids from local and global developers will be accepted. The first projects are expected to come online no later than 2030, the company said. Under the proposed timetable, the final RfP will be issued in February 2022 and awards will be announced in November 2022.

Hawaiian Electric launched a procurement round in 2019, targeting around 900 MW of renewables or renewables combined with storage, including up to 203 MW on Hawaii Island.

The first two phases led to the selection of three solar-plus-storage projects and one standalone storage project for Hawaii Island, representing 132 MW of generation and 492 MWh of storage.

The state of Hawaii has committed to 100% renewable power by 2045. In 2020, Hawaiian Electric surpassed the state milestone of 30% of electricity sales coming from renewables, with Hawaii Island achieving a renewable portfolio standard of 43.4%.

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!