Pacific Business News is reporting:
Hawaiian Electric Co. can issue a request for proposal for an undersea cable even though legislation authorizing the RFP failed to pass this year.
Neither HECO nor the state Energy Office would disclose the possible timing of an RFP, but both confirmed that it could proceed without the legislation. They had asked for the legislation, which was held in committee, to create a structure for issuing the RFP to develop a business model for the cable.
The cable, part of the state’s Big Wind project, would carry energy generated by wind farms on Lanai and Molokai to Oahu.
The state in June awarded the University of Hawaii a $1.5 million contract to survey the ocean floor between the Hawaiian Islands and to find the best routes for the cables.
The project will integrate two proposed wind farms on Lanai and Molokai into the electric grids on Oahu and Maui.
