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Electricity from the state’s largest wind energy project — Kawailoa Wind — has begun flowing into the Hawaiian Electric Co. grid on Oahu.
At the same time, Kawailoa’s developer, Boston-based First Wind LLC, is continuing to repair damage from an Aug. 1 battery fire at its other wind energy facility on Oahu that could keep it shut down for another year.
The 69-megawatt Kawailoa Wind project located northeast of Haleiwa was placed into service Nov. 2 and is capable of providing the energy needs of about 14,500 Oahu homes over the course of a year, First Wind announced Monday. The Kawailoa project does not include a battery energy storage system like the one that was destroyed by a fire at the nearby 30-megawatt Kahuku Wind project.
First Wind will spend an estimated $8.1 million to make repairs necessary to get Kahuku Wind back online, according to an update that HECO filed with the Public Utilities Commission on Thursday. The repairs are scheduled to be completed by late 2013, according to HECO.
HECO has contracts to buy the electricity produced by both wind projects at a price of about 23 cents a kilowatt-hour. HECO charged its Oahu residential customers 33.6 cents a kilowatt-hour in October.
HECO officials told the PUC that First Wind is considering replacing the damaged battery system in Kahuku with a different type of voltage regulation device known as a "dynamic volt-amp reactive" system. Both the battery and "D-VAR" systems are used to smooth out the voltage fluctuations normally associated with wind energy.
"This is a voltage regulation device made by American Superconductor, and there has been wind project experience with this device," Dean Matsuura, HECO’s manager for regulatory affairs, wrote in a letter to the PUC.
Matsuura said First Wind is studying whether a D-VAR system could be integrated into the wind project with fewer system modifications than a battery energy storage system.
Because of its location near the end of a 46-kilovolt HECO transmission line, Kahuku Wind was required to have a battery system. Kawailoa, however, is located closer to one of HECO’s main 138-kilovolt transmission lines and therefore can get by without a battery system, according to First Wind officials.
The energy generated by Kawailoa Wind will help Hawaii move closer to its goal of generating 40 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, said Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz.
"This is by far the single largest wind energy project in Hawaii’s history," Schatz said. "We should all be pleased and proud that we are making good progress towards more affordable, sustainable energy."
Hawaii has about 151 megawatts of total wind energy capacity on Oahu, Maui and Hawaii island. Another 21 megawatts is scheduled to come online sometime in the next few months with the completion of Sempra’s Auahi Wind project in southeastern Maui.
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