MEDIA RELEASE
The Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) would like to share the first edition of the DBEDT Energy Update.
The DBEDT Energy Update serves Hawaii’s businesses and policy makers in making informed decisions about future investments, job creation, and policy decisions.
The energy industry is a significant catalyst for economic development, now and in the future, to replace fossil fuel import expenditures with home-grown industries that pay business taxes and create jobs for Hawaii residents.
For the complete brochure, click the PDF button below:
DBEDT Energy Update Feb. 2012— Find out more:
http://hawaii.gov/dbedt
While it is encouraging to see the progress we’re making towards energy independence, it is somewhat disturbing that the vast emphasis has been placed on wind, especially at the rates being charged by First Wind. Geothermal and Wave energy are substantially less expensive and minimal to no expansion has been done in those areas.
You may have read about First Wind’s new wind farm at Kawailoa on the N. Shore of Oahu. While I’m all for renewable energy, I am not in favor of HELCO’s,HECO’s & MECO’s customers having to pay through the nose for it. HSA stated that HECO and its customers are being charged 22.9 cents per KWh. If you go to First Winds FAQ link for their Kaheawa I project on Maui-http://www.kaheawa.com/kwp/faq.cfm, you’ll see that they charged a rate of 8 cents per kwh back in 2006, with a 1.5% inflationary adjustment. Assuming this was an annual adjustment, that would bring the rate to 8.75 cents for 2012 – a far cry from the approximately 23 cents being charged for their recent projects. With the cost of oil so much higher now than in 2006, it would have been a travesty to allow First Wind to base any of the rate at avoided costs (essentially the cost of oil, and which Ormat omitted for their expansion in Puna), but even if they allowed the previous level of 30% agreed to with Kaheawa I, it would not come close to the 22.9 cents per KWh that First Wind is presently charging.
For some reason, none of their more recent projects, all at over 20 cents a kwh, have such a FAQ link. It would have been interesting to find out how First Wind justified a cost of 22.9 cents for Kawailoa and its other recent projects to the PUC, and more importantly, why did the PUC accept it, but apparently they were not required to do so. If it was not reviewed by the PUC, why not, and what steps are being taken that such an “oversight†does not happen again? Sophie Cocke of Civil Beat provided an insightful report addressing this lack of oversight back in December at http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2011/12/01/14075-hawaii-utility-regulators-lack-of-data-is-troubling.
Apparently, Jeffrey Ono, our Consumer Advocate, did not feel that there was sufficient comparable sites to evaluate the proposed rates. Why he could not use Kaheawa I at 8 cents a KWh as a comparable, I have no idea. The PUC’s relunctance to even discuss it is more disturbing. Who do we have, then, to look after our interests?