Oahu Customers May See Their Electric Bills Rise Next Year As Power Plant Converts…But Hawaiian Electric says its Kapolei Energy Storage project will save customers money over the life of the project.
Oahu ratepayers may face a significant increase in electricity costs in late 2022, as the island’s power company turns to oil temporarily to fill the gap when it shutters a coal-burning power plant now producing about one fifth of the island’s power.
Hawaii’s top energy regulator, Public Utilities Commission Chairman Jay Griffin, suggested the cost of producing power at the plant could triple. He offered the “back of an envelope” calculations during a tense meeting with Hawaiian Electric officials earlier this month in which the company provided an update on its planned shutdown of the company’s coal-burning AES power plant in Kapolei.
