Hawaiian Electric proposes to repower Waiau Power Plant
5/18/2023
Hawaiian Electric is proposing to replace six aging fossil fuel-powered generators at its Waiau Power Plant in Pearl City with smaller, more efficient and fuel-flexible units that can provide reliable, firm generation to back up the expanding portfolio of variable resources like solar and wind on the Oahu electric grid.
The new units can run on multiple fuels, including biodiesel and potentially hydrogen if it becomes commercially available in the future. Unlike traditional steam generators built to run continuously and which take hours to come online, the new units are designed to respond quickly to changing needs on the grid, filling the gap when variable resources like solar and wind aren’t available. They can run cleaner, quieter, more efficiently and operate less frequently than the existing units.
