More on the Recent Hawaii Energy Proposal

From Gary Hooser: http://garyhooser.livejournal.com/25661.html

Hawaii Energy Proposal - Transformational

The recent agreement reached between the State of Hawaii and HECO, the State’s primary energy provider has the potential to fundamentally transform the future of energy in our state.

Unfortunately the local newspapers chose to focus only on the sexy, expensive and potentially controversial proposal to lay an undersea cable between Maui County and the City and County of Honolulu.

The Honolulu Advertiser http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20081021/NEWS01/810210358/1001

The Honolulu Star Bulletin http://www.starbulletin.com/news/hawaiinews/20081021_Isles_power_up_clean-energy_agreement.html

Totally missing from the stories covered in local media were the provisions on decoupling and feed-in tariff. Also missing from the local news was the lifting of net metering caps, the raising of the Portfolio Standards, the removal of “efficiency savings” from the Portfolio Standard definitions, the restriction against the development of new fossil fuel generators, and numerous other innovative and forward thinking proposals.

This agreement represents the culmination of years of groundwork that has been set into place by the legislature and the recent efforts and very productive collaboration between the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism and the U.S. Department of Energy.

A summary of the agreement:

1) Agreement to an additional 1,000 MW of renewable energy resources on Oahu.
2) Renewable Portfolio Standards will be increased to 25% by 2020 and 40% by 2030.
3) Energy savings from energy efficiency shall not count toward the RPS goals after 2014.
4) Commit to expeditiously integrate up to 400 MW of wind into the Oahu system.
5) The State, in coordination with developers, contractors, and the utility will be responsible for siting and permitting an undersea cable system – and seek federal funding assistance. Additional taxpayer and or rate payer funding may also be needed.
6) The electric utility should no longer be compensated under a model which inherently encourages increased electricity usage. Decoupling that delinks revenues from profits from electricity sales will be implemented.
7) All parties agree that feed-in tariffs which establish a set of standardized, published power purchase rates will be established.
8) There will be no system-wide cap on net energy metering. Instead there will be a limit on a per-circuit basis to no more than 15% of demand.
9) Aggressive support of alternative fuel vehicles.
10)“Life line” rates shall be established to provide a rate cap for low and fixed income users.
11) 2,500 additional solar hot water installations on a “pay as you save” program.
12) Photovoltaic Host Program.
13) Advanced metering infrastructure.

The complete agreement with detail and dates/benchmarks can be downloaded read here http://hawaii.gov/dcca/areas/dca/HCEI/HECI%20Agreement.pdf

Though I have not delved into the intricate detail – it appears that this agreement is truly ground-breaking and all parties who have played a role in its development should be highly commended. There is of course much work still yet to be done – but this is a huge step in the right direction.Of course the question remains -- When will Kauai be included?

Gary L. Hooser
State Senator
http://www.garyhooser.com
http://garyhooser.livejournal.com/25661.html

Aloha, Brad