Hawaii PUC denies Hu Honua Bioenergy motions for reconsideration

The Hawaii Public Utilities Fee on June 24 denied motions for reconsideration filed by Hawaii Electrical Gentle Co. Inc. (HELCO) and Hu Honua Bioenergy LLC asking the company to rethink its Could 23 rejection of an amended energy buy settlement (PPA) between the 2 entities.

Hu Honua Bioenergy is the developer of a virtually full 30 megawatt (MW) biomass energy plant in Hawaii. Work to develop the biomass-fired energy challenge has been ongoing for greater than a decade, with improvement of the challenge practically full since at the least mid-2020.

The power is positioned on the website of the previous Hilo Coast Energy Co. in Pepeekeo, Hawaii, which is positioned close to the jap shoreline of Hawaii’s huge island. A sugar mill was developed on the website in 1857. An influence facility was added to the location in 1972 and was fired with sugarcane bagasse till sugar manufacturing resulted in 1994. The ability facility continued to function via 2004 however was fired with coal fairly than bagasse. Hu Honau started work to refurbish the plant to supply biomass-based power greater than a decade in the past, with plans to gas the power with regionally grown biomass, together with eucalyptus.

The PUC accredited a PPA between HELCO and Hu Honua in late 2013. The challenge nonetheless confronted improvement delays and authorized challenges. HELCO introduced plans to terminate that PPA in 2016 because of these delays. Hu Honua in 2017 introduced that it had reached an settlement with HELCO for an amended PPA, which was accredited by the PUC later that 12 months. The PPA was quickly challenged by an environmental group. The authorized problem reached the Hawaii Supreme Courtroom, and the courtroom in 2019 rejected the PPA, ruling that the PUC was required to expressly contemplate the discount of GHG emissions in its determination making. In June 2019, the PUC re-opened a docket associated to the PPA. In mid-2022 the PUC issued an order figuring out that HELCO had not sufficiently supported its request for a waiver of the aggressive bidding course of for the Hu Honua facility. Such a waiver had beforehand been accredited for the challenge, however the PUC concluded that that approval had been voided by the Supreme Courtroom ruling. Authorized and regulatory wrangling over the PPA continued via the spring of 2022, with the PUC handing down its determination to disclaim the amended PPA on Could 23.

Hu Honua Bioenergy filed a movement for reconsideration on June 2, arguing that the rejection has a detrimental impression on the corporate’s important property curiosity; that the rejection will trigger the lack of a whole lot of jobs and thousands and thousands of {dollars} in tax income; and that the rejection will end result within the continued and extended use of excessive quantities of costly and price-volatile imported oil.

Hawai’i Electrical Gentle Co. additionally filed a movement for reconsideration on June 2, calling the PUC’s rejection “unreasonable, illegal  and inaccurate on quite a lot of factors.” The corporate particularly claims that the denial exceeds the scope of the remand from the Hawai’i Supreme Courtroom in HELCO I and Helco II; by basically figuring out that the Hu Honua challenge should be carbon detrimental, establishes a brand new authorized customary for GHG emission that’s past the scope of relevant legislation as has been utilized to different initiatives; consists of quite a lot of incorrect factual assertions that are inconsistent with the file; and incorrectly states that the fee lacks authority to implement circumstances towards Hu Honua, which might make sure that such circumstances are, in reality, binding.

The PUC on June 24 denied these motions for reconsideration and closed the docket. A full copy of the denial will be downloaded from the PUC web site.