Categorized | Business, Energy

HELCO reports power availability may be tight due to generating units out of service

MEDIA RELEASE

After two unexpected trips of the 60 MW Hamakua Energy Partners (HEP) power plant on Wednesday and Thursday (April 13-14) of last week, the HEP plant remains out of service and is not expected to return until Friday. Hawai‘i Electric Light is experiencing narrow generation reserves this week.

To meet customers’ electricity needs, Hawai‘i Electric Light is running all its available firm generating units. It is working to return its Hill 6 steam plant early from its annual overhaul and plans to have it return to service by Tuesday evening. Hawai‘i Electric Light’s Puna steam unit, which was on standby status, was returned to active service as well. The unit was taken out of regular service in 2014 and now is used for this type of contingency. Renewable resources like wind and hydro are adding generation during the peak use hours and helping to increase generation reserves during this time.

“Our dedicated employees have been working long hours to meet the electricity needs of the community during this fluid situation. With the variable wind and hydro resources, we expect to have enough generation to meet the peak use period this week. However, we don’t have additional generation resources if there are unexpected technical problems on one of the larger units on our system,” said Rhea Lee-Moku, Hawai‘i Electric Light spokeswoman. “We want to assure the community that we’re doing everything we can to provide sufficient generation.”

“While we currently expect to have enough generation this week, we want to share this information with our customers to help them plan ahead just in case. In the event we have a sudden loss of generation, we may need to ask customers to conserve electricity use during the evening peak hours between 6 to 8 p.m. We will give as much notice as possible though conditions can change suddenly,” Lee-Moku said. “We sincerely apologize for any concern this may cause and appreciate everyone’s cooperation and understanding.”

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