Hawaiian Electric plans grid overhaul for wider renewables integration

Hawaiian Electric Co on Friday unveiled a plan to upgrade the power grids of five Hawaiian islands in order to accommodate more renewable energy sources and enhance reliability.

The utility presented a draft of a plan, which was submitted to the Public Utilities Commission, concerning the power networks of Hawaiian Electric, Maui Electric and Hawaii Electric Light for the next six years. The programme is aimed at helping the utilities reach a consolidated renewable portfolio standard of 48% by 2020 and 100% by 2045. In addition, it points at specific steps for tripling private rooftop photovoltaic (PV) installations and incorporating more sophisticated energy management tools.

Work will be split into several phases, with the first one suggesting near-term modernisation such as the installation of sensors and control systems to prevent voltage variations of rooftop solar plants and restricting the addition of the capacity. Distribution of smart metres, promotion of advanced inverter technology and automated controls at substations and local circuits, as well as outage management solutions are also included in the plan.

The implementation of the first step is expected to cost about USD 205 million (EUR 180m) over six years. “We can use advanced technology to transform these grids for two-way power flow from nearly 80,000 privately owned rooftop solar systems today and tens of thousands more in the future, along with thousands of energy storage systems that will be part of our grids by 2045,” said Colton Ching, Hawaiian Electric’s senior vice president for planning and technology.

Hawaiian Electric will this month start holding public discussions regarding the project and devise a final version of its proposal, to be presented at the end of August.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.877)

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