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| An aerial view from Feb. 15 of the 2018 lava flow and Puna Geothermal Venture. (HOLLYN JOHNSON/Tribune-Herald) |
As Puna Geothermal Venture (PGV) moves toward restarting following last year’s Kilauea eruption, a new power purchase agreement with Hawaii Electric Light Co. (HELCO) might be on the table.
Mike Kaleikini, senior director of Hawaii affairs for Ormat, PGV’s parent company, said talks are ongoing with HELCO, and revolve around delinking the cost of power from the price of oil. During peak hours, the first 25 MW PGV sells to HELCO is tied to that cost.
Essentially, that pays PGV, which had a capacity of 38 MW, for reducing the amount of oil the utility uses to generate power. But it also can lead to higher costs for customers.
Kaleikini said PGV is interested in delinking the cost of power from oil to provide more certainty about its revenue. He said the parties entered those talks before the eruption started.
