State officials say they hope the Aiea Public Library’s photovoltaic solar panels will be activated early next year, nearly a year and a half after the facility opened at the former Aiea Sugar Mill site.

Keith Fujio, special assistant to the state librarian, said the state needs to do additional electrical upgrades due to some rule changes for PV systems. The work is slated for completion in January.

He said the application for the PV panels was submitted to Hawaiian Electric Co. during construction of the $10.4 million library, which opened in July 2014.

The work went out to bid for about $100,000 to $120,000, Fujio said. The contact awarded to PhotonWorks Engineering was for about $84,300, said state Rep. Sam Kong (D, Halawa-Aiea-Newtown).

“I think they (HECO) are aware that we’re working on it and what we’ve done so far,” Fujio said Thursday. “It shouldn’t take so long.”

HECO spokesman Darren Pai said the library’s application has been approved, but company officials are waiting for the library to “provide us with certification that the inverters on its PV system comply with the required performance standards that will help ensure safe, reliable interconnection” before finalizing the agreement. He said the performance standards were implemented earlier this year.

Pai said the library installed the PV system before its application was approved.

“We have worked with the library staff to help them through the review process,” Pai said Thursday in an email. “We appreciate the Aiea Public Library’s efforts to install rooftop PV and use renewable power to meet its energy needs.”

The 17,200-square-foot library features 6,000 square feet of PV solar panels and a high-efficiency air-conditioning system that would help to reduce electricity costs. The facility earned the distinguished Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold Certification last year from the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED is the country’s program for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings.

About 700 people attended the opening of the library on Pohai Place last year. Community members and officials had pushed for the new location for nearly 20 years, saying that the original Aiea library on Moanalua Road, which was constructed about 50 years ago, was too small and did not provide enough parking.

The new library was part of the Aiea Town Center Master Plan in 2002 in which community members had envisioned senior housing and a community center on the rest of the former sugar mill property.

Kong said the PV panels have been a point of frustration among some residents who have asked why the system is not activated yet.

“It’s really a big concern,” Kong said Thursday. “It shouldn’t have happened. We need to … make sure the communication is open and that we’re doing this work.”