06-03-2014, 04:05 AM
The increase for Hawaii island is higher.
This has all been covered before. The geothermal power purchase agreement (PPA) was made under a mandated Avoided Cost Contract (ACC) by Governor Lingle and the legislature in 2008. This meant that HELCO had to pay the same wholesale rate for geothermal as if it was being produced by burning oil, ie, the rate is tied to the cost of a barrel of oil. This base portion of the contract, 30MW, is for 20 years. In 2010, the state legislature removed ACC as a mandate for energy contracts and the additional 8MW from PGV is at industry standard rate, about 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. Energy PPA are usually for 20 years and the new contracts that have been made since 2010 do not have ACC imposed on them, so they are at their respective industry standard rates.
This gets really tedious. The data and information is right there on your HELCO bill. The rate charges are split in two main categories, Base Load Power and Alternative Energy. The Base Load Power includes the oil burning plants along with the 30MW ACC power from PGV. HELCO still gets more than 50% from oil burning plants. The rate from those plants is 80 cents to $1 per kilowatt-hour. When the price of oil goes up, that rate goes up.
The alternative energy like wind, solar, the additional 8MW non-ACC contract with PGV have an electric rate that averages out to about 30 cents per kilowatt-hour. The reduced rates from these alternative energy sources keep our rates lower than if it was all coming from oil burning plants.
There are many questions about the efficiency and accounting at HELCO that are legitimate questions that aren't being answered. Residential solar PV is a teeny, tiny part of the base load power requirement. If they were totally off-line, then there would be little problem. It's all of them only being affordable by being net-metering is what is causing balancing problems with excess power being provided at the times it's not needed. This problem is getting large enough that the utility could say part of the cost of adding solar PV is a switch box at the source, to turn off net-metering when it's not needed.
"This island Hawaii on this island Earth"
This has all been covered before. The geothermal power purchase agreement (PPA) was made under a mandated Avoided Cost Contract (ACC) by Governor Lingle and the legislature in 2008. This meant that HELCO had to pay the same wholesale rate for geothermal as if it was being produced by burning oil, ie, the rate is tied to the cost of a barrel of oil. This base portion of the contract, 30MW, is for 20 years. In 2010, the state legislature removed ACC as a mandate for energy contracts and the additional 8MW from PGV is at industry standard rate, about 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. Energy PPA are usually for 20 years and the new contracts that have been made since 2010 do not have ACC imposed on them, so they are at their respective industry standard rates.
This gets really tedious. The data and information is right there on your HELCO bill. The rate charges are split in two main categories, Base Load Power and Alternative Energy. The Base Load Power includes the oil burning plants along with the 30MW ACC power from PGV. HELCO still gets more than 50% from oil burning plants. The rate from those plants is 80 cents to $1 per kilowatt-hour. When the price of oil goes up, that rate goes up.
The alternative energy like wind, solar, the additional 8MW non-ACC contract with PGV have an electric rate that averages out to about 30 cents per kilowatt-hour. The reduced rates from these alternative energy sources keep our rates lower than if it was all coming from oil burning plants.
There are many questions about the efficiency and accounting at HELCO that are legitimate questions that aren't being answered. Residential solar PV is a teeny, tiny part of the base load power requirement. If they were totally off-line, then there would be little problem. It's all of them only being affordable by being net-metering is what is causing balancing problems with excess power being provided at the times it's not needed. This problem is getting large enough that the utility could say part of the cost of adding solar PV is a switch box at the source, to turn off net-metering when it's not needed.
"This island Hawaii on this island Earth"
*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*