MECO Plan to Meet Future Energy Needs Reviewed

MECO Māʻalaea Power Plant, file photo by Wendy Osher.

By Wendy Osher

Public comment is being sought on a draft five-year action plan for Maui Electric Company.

The plan is part of an Integrated Resource Planning process, which explores how the utility will meet future energy needs in Maui County.

Parent company, Hawaiian Electric Companies, intends to file the Action Plan with the Hawaiʻi Public Utilities Commission at the end of June.

Company officials say the PUC initiated the latest round of integrated resource planning last year, naming Carl Freedman of Maui-based Haʻikū Design & Analysis as the commission’s “independent entity” to oversee the process.

The plan is one of three compiled by Hawaiian Electric Company and its subsidiaries.

A public meeting on Maui to discuss the plan, will take place on Thursday, June 13 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Pōmaikaʻi Elementary School.

Meetings are also planned on Molokaʻi and Lānaʻi in June.  The Molokaʻi meeting runs from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, June 19 at teh Mitchell Pauole Center in Kaunakakai; and the Lānaʻi meeting runs from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 20, at Hale Kupuna located in Lānaʻi City.