HECO To Procure 135 MW More Solar & Storage

• HECO has submitted proposal with the Public Utilities Commission for approval to its plan for second phase of competitive procurement of renewable power with storage
• Under the proposal, HECO will issue RFP for 3 solar projects of 135 MW cumulative capacity and 1,378 MWh of storage
• On receiving go-ahead from the commission, HECO says it will officially launch the procurement round by June 2019 with completion due for 2022

Hawaiian Electric Companies (HECO) plans to procure 135 MW of new solar capacity along with 1,378 MWh of storage by 2022, in an effort to fill in the gap created by the scheduled closure of its 180 MW coal power plant in Oahu and oil-fired Kahului Power Plant on Maui island. The 2 fossil fuel power plants will come to an end of their working life by September 2022, and 2024-end, respectively.

The 180 MW AES Hawaii coal power plant is the largest single generator of the Hawaiian Electric System meeting 16% of peak demand on Oahu island. The second phase of renewables procurement will be open to all variable renewable and storage resources including wind and solar generation, renewables plus storage, standalone storage and grid services.

Draft request for proposals (RFP) for the second phase of renewable resource procurement, have been submitted to the Public Utilities Commission for approval and are expected to be issued officially to interested bidders by June 2019.

The 3 projects that will help HECO reach its 2022 goals under phase 2 are:

• For Oahu, 160,000 MWh annually – equivalent to 73 MW of solar generation and 1,200 MWh of storage daily
• For Maui, 65,000 MWh annually – equivalent to 30 MW of solar generation and 160 MWh of storage daily
• For Hawaii Island, 70,000 MWh annually – equivalent to 32 MW of solar generation and 18 MWh of storage daily

The draft RFP and model agreements can be viewed on HECO website.

HECO is targeting 100% renewables by 2040, and in the interim reach 48% renewable energy by 2020 and 72% by 2030 (see HECO's 100% RE Plan Approved).

In the first phase of its 100% renewables venture, 8 projects were awarded to come up on 3 islands representing 247 MW of solar power and close to 1 GWh of storage capacity to come online by 2021-end (see Hawaii's PV+Storage Grid Modernization Plan Cleared).