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Hawaiian Electric utilities issue RFP for more than 900 MW, including storage

Three utility subsidiaries of Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. — known collectively as the Hawaiian Electric Companies, or HECO — have issued requests for proposals for developers interested in building up to 932 MW of renewable energy projects.

The Hawaii Public Utilities Commission on Aug. 15 approved the requests for proposals, or RFPs, and ordered them issued on Aug. 22. They include calls for energy storage as part of the generation mix for the islands of Oahu, Hawaii and Maui.

"This effort is a big step in accelerating the transition from fossil fuels to locally sourced clean energy resources," Hawaiian Electric President and CEO Alan Oshima said in a news release Aug. 26. "For customers, the benefits are simple: cleaner energy at lower prices." The state has a target of 100% renewable energy by 2045.

The largest solicitation will be for 594 MW to meet the power needs of Oahu. Storage paired with other renewable energy resources and stand-alone storage resources will be considered.

The project must be operational by September 2022, when a contract between Hawaiian Electric Co. Inc. and AES Corp. for the output of the 180-MW coal-fired AES Hawaii plant expires. The facility, which will then be shut down, meets about 16% of the peak demand, making it the biggest single generator on Oahu.

Under the proposal for Hawaii Electric Light Co. Inc., which serves the island of Hawaii, the utility will need capacity of up to 203 MW. Solar project proposals are required to include storage, but not other technologies.

Hawaiian Electric Industries subsidiary Maui Electric Co. Ltd., serving the island of Maui, will need 135 MW because the oil-fired Kahului power plant will be closed by the end of 2024. Any proposals must be paired with storage, but the utility is also accepting stand-alone storage projects.

As for storage, the solicitations will call for batteries or other equipment that can produce the equivalent of a plant's output for set amounts of time.

Bidders are required to submit their bids no later than 2 p.m. HST on Nov. 5, with the selected priority list issued Jan. 17, 2020. Final offers are due Jan. 24, 2020, with the final award group disclosed on May 8, 2020. Contract negotiations will commence May 15, 2020.

Pending negotiations and approvals, the grid services projects are expected to begin in late 2020 with the total expected by 2022.

Additional requests for services, supply

Under a separate request for proposals, the utilities are looking for grid services including fast frequency response and capacity for Oahu, Maui and Hawaii islands with targets in the range of 4 MW to 119 MW.

Bidders need to submit their bids no later than Oct. 31, with the selected priority list issued Dec. 12. Final offers are due Dec. 19, and the final award group will be disclosed Jan. 9, 2020, along with the beginning of contract negotiations.

Final requests for proposals are scheduled to be issued later in 2019 for about 4 MW of solar or 3.6 MW of small wind for the island of Molokai, paired with energy storage, and up to 9.5 MW of solar paired with energy storage for the island of Lanai. The RFP awaits approval from regulators.

The PUC appointed independent observers and a technical adviser to guarantee all proposals are treated "fairly and equitably" and will not result in technical difficulties for grids.

Pending contract negotiations and final approvals, the first generation projects are anticipated to come online in 2022 with total amount expected by 2025.