The electric utility on Hawaii island today published the first draft of a plan to add 50 MWE of geothermal power to the island’s electric grid.
The draft, filed by Hawaii Electric Light Co. (HELCO) with state regulators, will be used by developers as they prepare their bids to supply the renewable power to HELCO. Selection of the winning bidder or bidders is expected to occur in mid-2014.
An existing 38 MWe geothermal plant at Puna on Hawaii island already accounts for about 20 percent of Hawaii island’s peak electrical load. An additional 50 MWe would push the amount of geothermal generation to nearly 50 percent of peak load.
HELCO filed the Draft Geothermal RFP with the State of Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (PUC) on November 9, 2012.
- Interested parties (including prospective bidders) may submit comments on the Draft Geothermal RFP to the HELCO Geothermal RFP email at GeothermalRFP@helcohi.com and to the PUC.
- The proposed tentative date for the technical conference webinar is Wednesday, December 5, 2012.
- A technical conference webinar for the Draft Geothermal RFP will be held in the near future. The current tentative date is December 5, 2012.
- Specific instructions for signing up for the technical conference webinar will be posted here on this website when the date of the technical conference webinar is confirmed. The agenda will also be posted.
- All questions at the technical conference webinar will be submitted in writing.
