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Developers that bid for Hawaiian development getting impatient

Developers that bid for Hawaiian development getting impatient Diamond Head, Honolulu, Hawaii, US (source: flickr/ snowpeak, creative commons)
Alexander Richter 27 Feb 2014

Huena Power, one of the companies that bid for a potential 50 MW geothermal power project in Hawaii is now requesting a stakeholder meeting to ensure that geothermal receives the accurate representation in any further energy planning in Hawaii. This includes a re-evaluation of the bad outcome of the geothermal RFP process.

Following a lengthy request for proposals for the development of up to 50 MW of geothermal power generation capacity in Hawaii, developers that were bidding are now getting impatient.

First the CEO of Innovation Development Group (IDG) provided her view on geothermal energy in Hawaii in an opinion piece in the Honolulu Civil Beat publication  (CivilBeat), talking about the main reasons why geothermal is a great option for Hawaii.

Now the attorney of Huena Power, formed by Innovations Development Group for development on Hawaii, has now requested a meeting with the stakeholders, including the Hawaii Electric Light Co. (HELCO) and the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission. The company wants to address the delay in the award of a contract for the planned geothermal project with a potential investment cost of around $200 million.

The counsel for Huena Power, William Milks says in a letter to the Public Utilities Commission of Hawaii, that “It is further recommended that the proposed meeting occur within the next 15 days, in order that each and all of the deficiencies of the [request for proposals] itself, the RFP process, timing of the issuance of the RFP and the purported deficiencies in the several proposals to be identified and hopefully rectified, in order to ensure the benefits of geothermal be accurately represented in HELCO’s April [Power Supply Improvement Plan].”

The note that none of the bidders for the geothermal RFP failed to submit a qualifying bid sounds rather awkward. There are voices that say that the geothermal RFP was actually set up in a way to make geothermal an unviable option for Hawaii. This is rather stunning in light of the benefits of geothermal and the corresponding lower electricity prices for customers of HELCO. But maybe that is exactly what the utility does not want?

There are said to have been six companies that were bidding for the project, including Huena Power.

One would assume that this is where the Public Utility Commission would actually enter the game and force HELCO to pursue geothermal as a real option for Hawaii?

Source: Pacific Business News