Groups dig in to halt
HECO system plan
Community and environmental groups that successfully toppled Hawaiian Electric Co.'s plans to run an electric line atop Waahila Ridge say they will likely oppose proposals for underground lines as well.
They have a central question about the proposed backup electrical system: Does Oahu really need it?
"All of HECO's own engineering studies have shown it's not needed," said Henry Curtis, of the environmental group Life of the Land, which was one of three groups that fought the Waahila Ridge plan. "We think it's a waste of time to push all this when the need has not been established."
Curtis said he stands by the statement he made last June when the Board of Land & Natural Resources denied HECO use of its conservation lands for the electric line: "Our power is very reliable right now -- 99.98 percent reliable, more reliable than the mainland. The only reason to build this line is to give money to HECO's stockholders."
Under state law a utility has the right to seek Public Utilities Commission approval for rates that cover the cost of capital improvements plus up to 9 percent profit.
HECO maintains that it has got to have an additional transmission line to prevent a large-scale power failure if other lines go down. Potentially affected areas include the Windward coast, Hawaii Kai and Waikiki.
"People say, 'Well, it hasn't happened to date.' That's not a real good way to plan," said Robbie Alm, HECO senior vice president for public affairs.
HECO learned from its protracted, costly battle over Waahila Ridge that it wants community input on the front side of a project, Alm said.
The company will hold three public meetings -- June 23, 24 and 25 -- to explain its three alternatives, followed by two meetings of a Community Advisory Committee, to be composed of neighborhood board representatives, groups that objected to HECO's Waahila Ridge plan and others, he said.
With HECO's proposed "routes, hearings and public forums, they're back to square one: the same people doing the same thing," said Jerry Lam, president of Malama O Manoa, which also fought the ridge project. "Is there a need? We think we have a very strong case that there's no need."
The first of HECO's three options closely resembles the defeated Waahila Ridge project. It would use 3.6 miles of 138-kilovolt underground lines to link the Kamoku substation in Moiliili and the Pukele substation in Palolo Valley.
HECO is not giving cost estimates for any of the options, but said last year that laying underground lines in Palolo Valley would cost $46 million as opposed to $31 million for going over Waahila Ridge. It expects to have cost estimates and construction time estimates by the June meetings.
HECO's other two alternatives involve shorter underground segments of 46-kilovolt line, totaling from 1 to 1.9 miles in the Ala Moana area. They would connect existing 46-kilovolt lines to accomplish the same redundancy.
In Palolo Valley, residents have a history of opposing new electric lines, either above ground or under, said Darlene Nakayama, chairwoman of the Palolo Valley Neighborhood Board. "Our thoughts have not changed at all," she said yesterday.
