HONOLULU, June 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- To accelerate
the development of renewable energy resources, Hawaiian Electric
Company (HECO), subsidiary of Hawaiian Electric Industries,
Inc. (NYSE: HE), has asked the Public Utilities Commission for
permission to negotiate with five proposed projects that could
quickly provide low-cost electricity for Oahu.
If the PUC approves, Hawaiian Electric will negotiate power
purchase agreements directly with the developers of the five
projects, which include a mix of solar and wind technologies across
Oahu with a combined capacity of
64 megawatts. Hawaiian Electric anticipates negotiating long term,
20-year contracts with each project.
Combined, the projects have committed to sell electricity to
Hawaiian Electric at an average price of 15.9 cents per kilowatt-hour. This is about
one-third less than prices paid to existing solar and wind energy
projects on Oahu and the current
cost of generating electricity from oil.
"These projects represent an important first step as we are
starting to see lower market prices for renewable energy," said
Scott Seu, Hawaiian Electric vice
president for Energy Resources and Operations. "The strong response
we received demonstrates the high level of competition in our
market. That's good news for our customers."
Based on preliminary estimates, Hawaiian Electric expects the
combined effect of all five of these projects could reduce
generation costs by approximately $7.4
million a year, compared to today's cost of generation.
Hawaiian Electric's goal is to have as many of these projects as
possible in service by the end of 2015.
"Every step we take toward reducing our customers' bills helps.
We can't control the cost of oil, but we can try to accelerate the
addition of more low cost renewable energy resources," said
Seu.
In addition, 20 projects that originally provided proposals but
were not selected will be given the opportunity to update and
resubmit their pricing proposals. If those projects meet lower
pricing and other criteria such as site control, they could be
considered in a supplemental request to negotiate power purchase
agreements.
In February, Hawaiian Electric issued a call for low-cost
renewable energy projects on Oahu
that could qualify for a waiver from competitive bidding. Hawaiian
Electric narrowed the responses to five projects based on prices
and other criteria such as site control and development
experience.
Under PUC rules, Hawaiian Electric normally must use competitive
bidding to select generation projects larger than 5 megawatts. To
accelerate the benefits of these low cost projects to customers,
Hawaiian Electric is asking the PUC to waive competitive bidding
for these five projects. After power purchase agreements are
negotiated, each one must be submitted to the PUC for individual
review and approval before it goes forward. The individual
developers are also responsible for other key steps including
environmental review, permitting and community outreach.
Information: Darren
Pai
808-543-7753 or darren.pai@heco.com
For institutional investor inquiries:
Shelee Kimura
(808) 543-7384
skimura@hei.com
(Logo:
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110411/LA80136LOGO)
SOURCE Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc.