Virtual public meeting set for March 31 on proposed battery energy storage at West Loch Solar in Ewa Beach
Meeting scheduled 6:30 p.m. via Microsoft Teams and Facebook Live
Release Date: 3/16/2022
HONOLULU, March 16, 2022 – Hawaiian Electric will hold a virtual community meeting on Thursday, March 31, 6:30 p.m., via Microsoft Teams and Facebook Live, to introduce its proposed battery energy storage system that would be located at the existing West Loch Solar facility in Ewa Beach.
The 20-megawatt, 80 megawatt-hour BESS would provide clean, renewable replacement capacity to mitigate higher-risk periods of grid reliability following the AES coal plant retirement this fall. The BESS also would support the future retirement of older fossil-fueled units and help integrate more renewable resources.
“We’re in a unique position to secure the batteries at a time when the global supply chain crisis has created a shortage that has affected numerous projects,” said Jack Shriver, Hawaiian Electric director of generation project development. “West Loch Solar was designed to accommodate the addition of a battery system and by using the existing infrastructure, we’ll be able to deliver the project at a reasonable cost.”
Interested parties can attend or watch the meeting via Microsoft Teams or Facebook Live:
- Join the virtual meeting at hawaiianelectric.com/westlochbess. Go to Community Outreach, Virtual Community Meeting, and click on “Join the Meeting.” Participants can only register on the meeting day. To join by phone, dial 1-808-913-5536 and enter meeting code 189755192#.
- View the livestream on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HawaiianElectric.
Questions will be taken live during the meeting using the chat feature on Microsoft Teams and the comment section on Facebook. Public comments and questions also will be accepted at community@hawaiianelectric.com until April 22, 2022.
