POWER
GENERATION
POWERING A PACIFIC PARADISE
Hawaiian utility installs supplemental CHP on-site at resort
BY AMANDA M. KLEMP
T
he Hawaiian Island of Lanai was in need of an additional power supply, particularly for a resort sitting on Manele Bay. Maui Electric Co. Ltd., a wholly owned sub- sidiary of Hawaiian Electric Co. Inc., developed a plan to install a utility- owned combined heat and power unit (CHP) directly at the resort. “Maui Electric’s normal option would have been to install another generating unit at its central power plant to meet the incremental need for capacity,” said Dan Suehiro, project manager, Hawaiian Electric. “This is the first utility-owned CHP system in Hawaii, and its location at the cus- tomer’s site allows use of the waste heat that would normally be rejected into the air. This significantly increas- es the efficiency of the overall system, and it makes sense with the increas- ing fuel costs in Hawaii.” Maui Electric ordered the unit from Hawthorne Power Systems, a Caterpillar dealer, to provide power at the resort. Enercon, Peoria, Ill., supplied the custom enclosure for the unit. “The unit was designed as a CHP system for continuous operation in parallel with the utility,” said Neil Johnson, engineering manager, Haw- thorne Power Systems. “It has addi- tional capabilities to be remotely operated by the electric utility for k W output and power factor. It’s also a standby generator set capable of black starting.” The gen-set is powered by a Tier 2 Caterpillar C32 ATAAC ACERT diesel engine and a Cat-packaged perma- nent magnet alternator directly driven off the engine. Output ratings range from 1000 kW for standby, 910 kW prime power and 830 k W for a contin- uous load at 480 V and 60 Hz. The engine is cooled via a closed- loop system with a process plate- and-frame heat exchanger and an additional excess heat radiator from Young Touchstone. The unit is also equipped with a Rocore air-to-air aftercooling system — a require-
Maui Electric Co. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Hawaiian Electric Co. Inc., has installed a combined heat and power unit on-site at a resort on the Hawaiian Island of Lanai to generate power for both continuous operation in parallel with the utility and as a standby unit. In addition, it utilizes waste heat from the unit to supply domestic hot water.
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