STAND. COM. REP. NO. 16-22

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2022

RE: H.B. No. 1595

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection, to which was referred H.B. No. 1595 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ENERGY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to authorize independent generators of renewable energy to wheel the renewable electricity they produce pursuant to administrative rules established by the Public Utilities Commission.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Tawhiri Power LLC, Hawaii Clean Power Alliance, Blue Planet Foundation, and one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Public Utilities Commission, Hawaii State Energy Office, Hawaiian Electric Company, and Life of the Land.

Your Committee finds that the production of clean electricity may be encouraged if independent generators of clean electricity can engage in retail wheeling, in which electric power is transmitted from one independent generator of renewable energy to users of renewable energy over the existing transmission lines of a third-party electric utility. Through retail wheeling, users of renewable energy, including the State and the counties, could acquire clean electricity by purchasing it from a clean electricity project developer, helping the State achieve its goal of one hundred percent renewable energy by 2045.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Extending the deadline for the Public Utilities Commission to:

(A) Establish rules to implement retail wheeling to December 31, 2023; and

(B) Submit a report to the Legislature on retail wheeling to no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2024;

(2) Inserting language that directs the Public Utilities Commission to evaluate the need to adopt customer protection measures, including disallowing a wheeling project under certain conditions;

(3) Changing the effective date to July 1, 2100, to encourage further discussion; and

(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1595, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1595, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection,

____________________________

NICOLE E. LOWEN, Chair