Alicia Moy has started a new phase in her life in Hawaii in more ways than one. At 35, the recently appointed president and chief executive officer of Hawai‘iGas had overseen investments in the utility from New York where she worked for Macquarie Infrastructure Co., now the parent company.
Moy also got married on Maui two years ago, at the Sugarman Estate in Makena. Her husband comes from Australia.
"When I was looking for a place to get married, I was looking for something that was sort of halfway," Moy said. "And then when I looked at the map, I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh! Can you believe it? It’s Hawaii, and I come here all the time for work so this is great!”
Most recently the utility has been in the news with an announced plan to boost its reserves of propane, which it provides to about 40,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers statewide.
Hawai‘iGas (which might still be better known by its legacy name, The Gas Co.) is in the midst of bigger change, having approached state regulators about a plan to bring in large quantities of liquefied natural gas.
LNG now is just being used to supplement the synthetic gas the utility produces from an oil refinery byproduct, naphtha. Elsewhere, natural gas has been at the center of public policy debates over its extraction from the ground using a process known as "fracking."
That controversy is somewhat distant from Hawaii, Moy said. She added that her staff has been working with emergency crews to be sure they’re trained for all contingencies — responding to any equipment problems or container spills, for example — once LNG imports begin.
"We’ve been very focused on making sure it’s safe here," she said. "That’s in our control."
QUESTION: Did the announcement of a buyer for Tesoro change anything for your company?
ANSWER: With the Tesoro announcement of Par as a buyer, for us, given that we’ve been a customer for a long time for our naphtha supply, we had been working with Tesoro through the transition and not sure what they were going to be, they were converting to a terminal. With the new buyer, we understand they want to restart it as a refinery, which means they’ll have naphtha.
We found out about the announcement along with everybody else, so we’re looking forward to meeting with them soon to hear about what their plans are, in terms of how they’re going to operate the refinery. We need to figure out what our long-term situation is.
If anything, I don’t necessarily say it ramped up our plans with liquefied natural gas, because we were already working through ways to diversify our supplies so we’re not as dependent on it. So we’ve been continuing with our efforts through this whole period. And with me coming on board, we’ve basically been revisiting our plans … refocusing the team and aligning behind that, and driving to really execute on our plans for LNG.
Q: So do any of the plans need readjusting now?
A: I actually don’t know if it changes too much of what we were already doing. It does buy us some time in terms of our naphtha supplies. … We don’t know what their prices are going to be like.
Q: Talk a little bit about what advantages bringing in the LNG offers.
A: Absolutely. First, we’re a regulated gas utility, so our responsibility is to make sure we’re sourcing the lowest cost energy for our customers reliably. So, cost-effective and reliable. LNG, the way we’re bringing it in, in terms of ISO containers — containerized LNG, bringing it over on Matson ships and using that to supplement our synthetic natural gas for our utility customers. We want to bring it in at the same cost, or lower cost than what they’re paying now.
That will allow us also to diversify our supply away from naphtha and use it as an emergency backup in the event something happens.
So for us, lowering the cost of energy and another reliable source is what we’re trying to accomplish in bringing LNG in ISO containers for customers.
Q: How much was the development of natural gas through fracking on the mainland a game changer for Hawaii importing LNG?
A: You’re right, it was a game changer. In the U.S., there was a bunch of import facilities being built, and now all of a sudden because of fracking now they’re turning into export facilities. There’s an abundance of natural gas available now because of that.
I remember when, at one of our board meetings we were working on our what our contingency plans are, what happens if one or both of our refineries shut down, because they were both talking about it a lot. What’s our strategy here if we don’t have any more naphtha?
LNG was brought up in the meeting. I remember everyone saying, ‘Wow, this is where the costs are; now, with LNG, this can actually be feasible.’
And that started us down the path of doing our own feasibility studies to see if this could really be feasible for Hawaii. At the end of last year, we finished our own study, which confirmed that. You’re probably aware of the HNEI (Hawaii Natural Energy Institute) study as well, that also confirmed that.
So I think for us it’s very encouraging, and we have the backing of our parent company to continue on this journey.
Q: Are there product lines for LNG that you’re considering, other than for home and business use?
A: There’s many. LNG, the bigger project is really bringing it in bulk, volumes. You can use it for power generation, and that will really lower the cost of energy for everybody in Hawaii, which would be fantastic. Marine fuels, transportation …
Q: Automotive use, eventually?
A: Yes, it can. In the mainland there’s actually a big push for CNG vehicles — it’s LNG, but it’s CNG for cars. So that’s a possibility as well.
Q: But do you need a retrofit for the car?
A: You do. It’s sort of like when you think of the hybrid vehicles, the different technology to do that. But the mainland’s working on that, I know, there’s a bunch of utilities and gas producers.
Q: Do you think the push away from fossil fuels could constrain the use of LNG for the long term?
A: I think that gas, just gas in general is an important part of Hawaii’s energy mix. Hawai’iGas, I believe, can be a growing part of Hawaii’s clean energy future.
Gas is a great partner with renewables. In looking at the overall portfolio, and the issues we’re having with the grid, allowing more renewables on the grid, having gas-fired power generation, rather than fuel oil, gas-fired power generation can start up quickly, so it can load follow renewables. So if the sun stops shining, the wind stops blowing, you can start up the generator. … It’s a good partner. They work very well together. … And gas as a baseload is firm power.
Q: Would the electric facilities need upgrades to accommodate LNG?
A: Yeah. To really get the best bang for your buck, so to speak. You get the benefits in two ways from LNG: You get it because it’s much lower in price, and you get it if you are able to upgrade the power generation fleet; there’s an efficiency gain, as well, that you can get. So, you put those two things together, and you can get significant savings in your energy costs.
Q: What do you mean by the efficiency gain?
A: At the moment, a lot of the generation that we have in Hawaii is old … the heat rates are very high … gas-powered generation is much newer. It’s like an old car versus a new car. …
Q: How do you respond to the environmentalist critique of LNG, with the fracking concerns and the added transportation emissions to bring it here?
A: For Hawaii, we don’t get involved with the fracking discussion, really, because that’s going on in the mainland; we’re just sort of the beneficiaries of the way they’re fracking and doing it safely. There’s a lot of regulations to make sure that’s being done environmentally friendly.
I know that fracking’s actually been around for quite a while for just oil, getting oil out of the ground. There are ways to do it safely, so Hawaii should be the beneficiary of the gas that’s coming out of the ground there, the lower cost.
So in terms of that discussion, I don’t hear too much.
Q: But don’t some say that we need to get off fossil fuels altogether?
A: I can see where they’re coming from, and I believe in where we’re going with renewables. I think it makes a lot of sense for Hawaii.
But it’s going to be a while for us to get to 100 percent renewable. So bringing LNG now is going to allow everyone to save money, now — which I think not being subject to these high prices, because I’m living here, too, is a benefit to me as well.
I’d rather for us to get to a solution that includes an energy mix of gas, which is a fossil fuel but it’s much cleaner, it’s more reliable, it partners well with renewables. It will allow more renewables to be used on the grid. So it makes a lot of sense to work together for a solution for Hawaii.
Q: Going back to fracking, how do you respond to concerns about risks like contaminated water supplies? That freaks out people in Hawaii.
A: No, I saw the movies, like "Gasland" …
Q: So you saw that. What did you think of that?
A: The way that they portray it, there are two sides to every story, but it’s definitely sensationalized.
But what I’ve read is that there are safe ways to do it. There are many different studies that are going on right now, about making sure that the gas can come out safely.
Q: Hasn’t there been a lot of documentation of bad outcomes? You know, water from the tap being lit on fire …
A: (Laughs) That looked pretty cool, but …
Q: Has that been overblown?
A: No pun intended.
Q: Pun intended — why not?
A: (Laughs) OK. From what I’ve heard, yes, that seems to be, there’s other reasons why that might have occurred. Have I dug into that? No.
What I’m focused on here in Hawaii is our company has been delivering gas reliably and safely for over 100 years in Hawaii. And that’s what we will continue to do.
