Public Meeting for HECO Action Plan

HECO news relese

Hawaiian Electric, Maui Electric and Hawaii Electric Light Company have scheduled meetings to seek public comment on draft five-year action plans. Molokai’s meeting will be Wednesday, June 19 at the Mitchell Pauole Center from 6 to 8 p.m.

The action plans are part of the Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) process, which looks at how the utilities will meet future energy needs. The Hawaiian Electric Companies intend to file an action plan for each company with the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (PUC) by June 28.

The Hawaiian Electric Companies will consider all comments in developing plans that will guide the utilities in coming years.

Information about IRP, including the four energy scenarios that guided the planning analysis, is available at www.irpie.com, the website of the PUC’s independent representative facilitating and monitoring the process. Ongoing technical analysis of the scenarios is available on the site. The completed analysis and draft action plans will be available for public review on the site after presentation to the citizens’ advisory group on Thursday, May 30.

The PUC initiated the latest round of integrated resource planning in March 2012 and named Carl Freedman of Maui-based Haiku Design & Analysis as the commission’s “independent entity” to oversee the process. The PUC also named a 68-member IRP advisory group, composed of representatives from diverse locations and organizations in Hawaii, to provide public input to the Hawaiian Electric utilities in the planning process.

The goal of integrated resource planning is to develop an action plan that governs how the utility will meet energy objectives and customer needs consistent with state energy policies and goals while providing safe and reliable utility service at a reasonable cost through development of resource plans and scenarios of possible futures that provide a broader long-term perspective.