Dive Brief:
Regulators at the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (PUC) on Tuesday grilled Hawaiian Electric (HECO) representatives on their plans to replace a 180 MW coal plant on Oahu, amid concerns that without adequate planning the facility will be replaced with oil-fired generation after it is retired in 2022.
The AES coal plant serves around 15% of demand on Oahu and is one of the fossil fuel plants that HECO is looking to shutter in the next couple of years. But regulators worry that delays to renewables projects that are planned to help replace the plant could require the state to turn to oil at the end of the next year.