The Hawaiian Electric Companies filed its Grid Modernization Strategy with the Hawaiʻi Public Utilities Commission today, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017, providing a roadmap for building more resilient and renewable-ready island grids.
Today’s filing follows the submission of the companies’ draft report in late June. The draft was posted online and presented at four public meetings on Hawaiʻi Island, Maui and Oʻahu to review the strategy with customers, answer their questions and receive their comments.
Dozens of written comments and transcripts of the public meetings are included in a separate document that accompanied the filing.
The plan, “Modernizing Hawaiʻi’s Grid for Our Customers,” outlines near-term initiatives that strengthen the grid through investments in technology to enable more renewable energy resources to be safely and efficiently integrated with the grid, including private rooftop solar.
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Longer term, the strategy is to continue to evolve the grid as a platform to enable greater customer choice and support statewide economic development and “smart communities” efforts that rely on robust data and energy management systems.
The companies estimate it will cost $205 million to update the energy networks of Hawaiʻi Electric Light, Hawaiian Electric and Maui Electric over the next six years.
The plan aims to help bring on more renewable resources—customer-sited and grid-sourced—increase reliability, and give customers new choices to manage their energy use.
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Highlights of this near-term work include:
Distribution of smart meters strategically rather than system-wide, i.e., to customers with
private rooftop solar on saturated circuits and customers interested in demand response
programs, variable rates or electricity usage data
Reliance on advanced inverter technology to enable greater rooftop solar adoption
Expanded use of voltage management tools, especially on circuits with heavy solar
penetration to maximize circuit capacities for private rooftop solar and other customer resources
Enhanced outage management and notification technology
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The Hawaiian Electric Companies filed its Grid Modernization Strategy with the Hawaiʻi Public Utilities Commission today, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017, providing a roadmap for building more resilient and renewable-ready island grids.
