Study costs will increase electrical bills

Hawaiian Electric Co. residential customers on Oahu will pay an average of 13 cents more a month over the next three years to cover the cost of preliminary studies HECO completed as part of its plan to generate wind energy on the neighbor islands and transmit it to Oahu via an undersea cable.

The Public Utilities Commission last week gave HECO final approval to collect $4.4 million from ratepayers to cover the costs for "Big Wind" implementation studies done in 2009 and 2010. The cost worked out to 0.021 cents a kilowatt-hour, or 13 cents a month for a typical residential HECO customer using 600 kilowatt-hours a month, according to HECO's filing with the PUC.

The studies were carried out when HECO was considering a plan to have developers on Lanai and Molokai build wind-energy projects with a total of 400 megawatts of generating capacity, and have the power transmitted to Oahu.

"These are the core planning studies that were necessary to assess both the technical and economic feasibility of the Big Wind Projects and requirements for the Oahu transmission lines and facilities needed to interconnect undersea cables delivering power from the Big Wind Projects to Oahu," according to a HECO filing.

However, the project has changed direction since then. Plans to develop 200 megawatts of generating capacity on Molokai were dropped after two successive developers were unable to win support from the local community.

In addition, the PUC ordered HECO to revamp the specifications of the project so that developers submitting bids would not be restricted to any one island or any particular type of renewable-energy technology. HECO submitted its revised request for proposals to the PUC in October 2011, but the commission has not yet approved it.

Officials at Friends of Lana‘i, a group that opposes the wind project on Lanai, questioned whether HECO was justified in making ratepayers pick up the cost of the Big Wind studies, particularly given the fact that the scope of the project has changed so much from when the studies were done.

As for Lanai, Castle & Cooke, which plans to develop 200 megawatts of wind energy there, sold the 97 percent of the island it owned to billionaire Larry Ellison last June. Castle & Cooke retained the right to develop the wind project after the sale and is still pursuing the plan.

Robin Kaye, a spokes­man for Friends of Lana‘i, said it appeared that HECO is continuing to focus on Lanai even though the utility was instructed by the PUC not to favor any particular island or technology while renewable-energy developers were bidding on the project.

Kaye also said the lack of transparency in the bidding process means the public won't know who HECO has selected to develop the project and whether any alternatives were considered.