Larry Ellison Wants Off Lanai’s Electric Grid. That Could Be A Problem For Everyone Else 0 A company owned by the business magnate says it plans to build a private microgrid on Lanai to service two resorts, a move that could end up pushing rates higher for island residents.
Electricity customers on Lanai could see their already super-high power bills skyrocket even further if a proposal by ultra-billionaire and island owner Larry Ellison moves forward.
Ellison’s sustainability-focused company Pulama Lanai intends to design a microgrid and remove two resorts that consume about 40% of the island’s power off the existing grid owned by Hawaiian Electric. The exclusive resorts — the Four Season Lanai and Sensei Lanai — are both owned by Ellison, co-founder of Oracle. Ellison bought nearly all of Lanai in 2012 for a reported $300 million.
“We have begun the process to design and construct a microgrid to serve Four Seasons Lāna’i and Sensei Lānaʻi with a targeted completion in 2027,” Lyssa Fujie, an account director for IQ 360, a Honolulu-based public relations firm working for Pulama Lanai, said in an email. “The microgrid will be 100% powered by photovoltaic and battery energy storage systems, positively contributing to Lānaʻi’s renewable energy future.”
