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Maui Electric gets
zoning approval for
Waena plant

By Gary T. Kubota
Star-Bulletin

WAILUKU -- Maui Electric Co. has received County Council land use approval to establish its third power plant site on the Valley Isle.

In a 7-2 vote yesterday, Maui County Council members approved the industrial zoning for the Waena power plant located three miles southeast of Kahului.

The bill now goes to Mayor James Apana for his review.

Charmaine Tavares, one of the Council members voting against the bill, warned that if Maui Electric did not relocate its Kahului power plant, which is within a tsunami inundation zone, Mother Nature will.

"We are tempting fate," Tavares said.

Tavares said she also wanted the Council to develop an energy code that could include a requirement to have solar water heaters at new residences and businesses.

J. Kalani English, the Council's Land Use Committee chairman, said the zoning bill took the middle path by allowing the utility to use only 32.5 of its 65.7 acres of the Waena land for oil-fired energy.

The remaining acreage has been designated for alternative energy use.

Maui Electric initially indicated that it would use the Waena power plant site to eventually consolidate its oil-fired units.

Since making the Waena plant proposal four years ago, the company has installed combustion turbines at Maalaea. It now expects to continue operating at Maalaea for the next 35 years.

Maui Electric President William Bonnet said his company is willing to take another look at its plans for retiring oil-fired units at Maalaea and Kahului.

But he said he can't agree on a schedule for retiring the oil-fired units until the first turbine is installed at the Waena plant.

Maui Electric needs approval from the state Public Utilities Commission before it begins operating the Waena plant.

Bonnet said the company will need the Waena site by 2007.