Question. What is the status of the Hawaiian Deep Water Cable project? Answer. The Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) has made significant progress in determining the technical feasibility of the deep water cable system for interconnecting the Hawaiian islands of Oahu and Hawaii. The development of the extensive laboratory test program for verifying the design of the selected deep water cable is well underway. The laboratory test protocol, which describes in complete detail all the electrical and mechanical tests to be performed on the test cable, will be completed by May 1986. HECO's cable subcontractor (Pirelli Cable Corporation) is fabricating 6,000 feet of the selected cable needed to perform the tests described in the protocol. The cable fabrication is scheduled for completion in July 1986. The oceanographic bottom survey cruise for collecting measurements of actual bottom roughness of the Alenuihaha Channel was highly successful. The cruise started late in October and was completed on November 7, 1985. Good quality, high-resolution data was obtained which did not indicate the presence of any catastrophic bottom conditions to prevent laying a submarine power cable in the channel. Data reduction was completed and several potential cable routes have been identified where additional surveys should concentrate. Future bottom surveys will be conducted as part of the State program and will provide the remaining data to complete the planning for the at-sea test. Question. What is the total appropriated for this program and are there any unobligated balances? Answer. To date, a total of $10.754 million has been appropriated to the HDWC program. Of this total, $9.354 million has been obligated to the prime contract with HECO and $1.4 million has been obligated to the support contract with the VSE Corporation. Consequently, there are no unobligated funds. Question. How much is needed in FY 1987 project? to continue the Answer. DOE has not requested Congress to appropriate additional funds for the HDWC program in FY 1987. DOE believes that in these times of budgetary constraints the previously appropriated funds will go a long way toward achieving the program's object of determining the technical feasibility of a deep water cable system for interconnecting the Hawaiian islands of Hawaii and Oahu. Question. In the FY 1987 budget, what are your plans for the BEST facility? Answer. Due to cutbacks in funding by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the Department of Energy in FY 1986, a slowdown in demand, and delays in receiving batteries to be tested caused by the reductions and slowdowns in the battery development program over the last three years, the operating agreement with the utility (Public Service Electric and Gas) that runs the facility will be terminated in May 1986. Consequently, the facility will not operate in FY 1987 and no funds are requested. Question. Explain your proposal for HVDC research in FY 1987 compared to FY 1986. Answer. The HVDC research, consisting of the assessment of protection and control alternatives for multi-terminal systems, was phased out in FY 1986. There are no research activities planned for the HVDC area in FY 1987. Question. Do you propose any funds in FY 1987 for new materials research? Answer. The FY 1987 request for new materials is $800,000. The requested funds will be used to continue research in gaseous dielectrics (determination of the toxicity of by-products from sparked sulfur hexifluoride gas mixtures and investigation of HVDC ion chemistry), interfacial phenomena in liquid and solid dielectric materials, and semiconductors. Energy Storage Question. How much is requested in FY 1987 for zinc/bromine activities compared to FY 1986? Answer. In FY 1986 $200,000 was requested for zinc/bromine battery activities. In FY 1987 no funds are requested for these activities. Question. Provide a detailed breakdown of the FY 1987 request in terms of the FY 1986 structure. Answer. The breakdown is submitted for the record. |