Coal news and updates

The clock is ticking for the state as it prepares to make its most significant shift off of fossil fuels on Oahu to date, as a recent, fiery meeting between top energy stakeholders underscored.

 

Last week, the virtual session about transitioning off of the AES coal plant — the largest source of energy on the island — and onto renewable energy projects by September 2022 ended with Hawaii Public Utilities Commission Chairman Jay Griffin excoriating Hawaiian Electric Co. for what he perceived as a lack of urgency and foresight.

 

The concern is that delays of a number of renewables projects that were intended to make up for the AES plant’s 180 megawatts will leave Oahu with a very tight fuel reserve margin, opening up the possibility of rolling blackouts in the event of failure, noted PUC Commissioner Jennifer Potter.

 

The coal plant in West Oahu, which supplies about 15% of the island’s electricity, was officially slated for retirement upon passage of Act 23, which banned further use of coal past 2022.

 

During the meeting, HECO Senior Vice President of Planning and Technology Colton Ching described some of the project delays being a result of a slow permitting process of getting models and information from prospective developers, often outside of HECO’s control.

 

An incensed Griffin said a few minutes later, “You point the finger at all these other entities for these delays. But what I see, every single project and program that runs through this department, is stuck in the slow lane. Every single one. And how are we going to meet any of this in an acceptable way, if we’re stuck in the slow lane and it’s all everyone else’s fault?”

 

Scott Glenn, chief energy officer at the Hawaii State Energy Office, was also in the meeting. He was already in the process of assembling various entities into what's being called a "governor’s task force" of about a dozen people charged with looking for ways to speed up projects. Glenn said in the meeting, and reiterated to Pacific Business News, that it’s a “shared responsibility” to see a smooth energy transition.

 

And it needs to happen quickly.

 

“The PUC made it clear there’s 18 months until the planned turning-off of the coal plant,” Glenn said. “So, we don’t want to spend a month standing up a task force when there’s only 18 months to get the job done.”

 

Ching acknowledged to the PUC during the meeting that margins “are going to be very tight” when AES shuts down, but that “we will be OK” if planned projects come online.

 

HECO spokesperson Jim Kelly later told PBN, “We’ve been planning for the transition off coal for years – this isn’t a surprise. We have a solid plan for maintaining a safe and reliable grid but it depends on all of us working together – the utility, project developers, local and state agencies, regulators – which is why we look forward to working with the governor’s task force.”

 

 

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In the hearing, Ching attributed some delays to HECO's own internal processes and said the utility could do better. Reached by PBN with follow-up questions about the nature of the delays or possible remedies, HECO declined to be more specific.

 

The PUC’s other source of frustration was that Oahu, even should it avert blackouts, appears headed toward having to trade one fossil fuel for another, at least in the short term. If there is not enough solar, wind, or battery storage energy to replace the AES plant, HECO would have to use oil instead to charge things like the upcoming 185-megawatt Kapolei Energy Storage Facility, set for summer 2022.

 

Or, as Griffin put it during the meeting, “going from cigarettes to crack.”

 

He went on: “It’ll be whatever the cost of oil is at the time we’re using it. You’re putting the risk back on all of us. Is Hawaiian Electric going to pick that up? If you want to take on the higher cost and the risk, then we’ll probably sign it right away. But if not, we’re going to resist it. We’re not going back to oil. We’re not going to put our eggs in that cart.

 

“Oil prices don’t have to be much higher for this to look like the highest increase people will have experienced. And it’s not acceptable. We have to do better.”

 

Marco Mangelsdorf, of photovoltaic panel supplier ProVision Solar in Hilo, told Pacific Business News he had not witnessed an exchange like that at a normally staid PUC stakeholder meeting in his two decades in local energy.

 

However, Mangelsdorf, who has been critical of HECO in the past, understood the frustration with the pace, costs and complexity of developing alternative energy.

 

“Those of us in the solar energy development space here, especially those companies pursuing utility-scale and Community-Based Renewable Energy (CBRE) systems, have had projects painfully delayed with proposed interconnect studies, costs and requirements that effectively kill the project and cause the developer to walk away after sometimes having spent millions,” Mangelsdorf said in an email.

 

The PUC opened a docket in February to take a closer look at HECO’s interconnection processes and planned plant retirements.

 

Given Griffin's specific criticisms of HECO's delays, PBN asked him for more information about the basis for his certainty that HECO's delays have been deliberate. Griffin responded: “The PUC recognizes that each of these projects must go through numerous steps, including government approvals/permitting and technical review of interconnection to the electrical grid, before they are able to go online. These require coordination across numerous involved stakeholders, including the Commission. The Commission has expedited its review in recognition of the importance of these projects and the benefits that they can bring to customers.

 

“The docket we have opened to comprehensively track renewable projects and identify improvements to the interconnection process is reviewing the factors that led to the delays in current projects. There is also an explicit focus on process improvements that will help new projects planning to come online in the next several years.”

 

Source : https://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/news