Posted on: Friday, May 13, 2005

ISLAND VOICES

By Mike Fitzgerald

As summer approaches and thousands of O'ahu residents seek relief from the heat through air conditioning, Hawaiian Electric Co.'s capacity to provide reliable power will be pushed to its limit.

There could be problems.

HECO has stated that the earliest it can build a new power plant is 2009. But its energy reserves are approaching maximum capacity now. We all need to look at realistic ways to ensure we have enough reliable energy through 2009 and beyond.

Hawai'i's thriving economy has led to increased consumption across the board for goods and services, which is great for business. But there are now more houses, more buildings and more people in them consuming more energy than ever before in Hawai'i's history. These factors have placed an unprecedented strain on O'ahu's power grid and on HECO's financial viability.

I would like to suggest that as HECO moves forward with several initiatives to address O'ahu's growing demand for power, we all carefully study Hawai'i's future electricity needs. Many of the living-wage jobs that pay at least $50,000 annually or higher will likely come from the state's emerging tech sectors. These businesses need a reliable, uninterruptible energy source. Power blackouts will disrupt servers, computers, backup systems and the air-conditioning units needed to maintain them. These risks must be part of the evaluation of HECO's proposals and Hawai'i's overall energy situation and strategies.

HECO must make additional infrastructure and technology investments in order to meet O'ahu's ever-increasing electricity needs. HECO's reduced profits in first quarter 2005 should be seen as an islandwide alert. We need to work with HECO to find energy solutions O'ahu can adopt and that we can afford. These solutions will likely include rigorous conservation, efficiency and retrofits, aggressively developing renewable energy resources and the use of existing technology to address our energy needs.

O'ahu needs to implement measures to ensure the power company is in a position to deliver reliable energy to our homes, businesses, schools and hospitals, and we need to implement some of these measures immediately.

Enterprise Honolulu formed the Hawaii Energy Reliability Advisory Committee to help ensure that Hawai'i residents and businesses will have both current and future power needs assured.

The Hawaii Energy Reliability Advisory Committee membership reflects a broad range of businesses and organizations concerned about providing reliable energy. Its members include representatives of the Aina Nui Corp., Hawaii Biotech, the Hawaii Technology Trade Association, Rebuild Hawaii Consortium, High Technology Development Corp., Victoria Ward Ltd., the Building Industry Association, and Pacific International Center for High Technology Research.

We have come together because reliable energy is a critical issue for Hawai'i's economic stability. Our committee is joining the public debate about Hawai'i's energy future to help ensure reliable energy for all of Hawai'i.

Mike Fitzgerald is president and CEO of Enterprise Honolulu. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.