Modernizing Island’s Grids

The beach state of Hawaii could be saving $3 to $7 billion by speeding up its transition to the solar energy aim. It’s been validated by the experience of Kauai, where a new storage park reduces the island’s electricity rates. A new law in Hawaii commits to pursuing solar energy assertively.

Hawaii’s legislature aim of 100 percent clean energy by 2045 and Hawaiian Electric Industries is chasing a state-approved plan to complete this goal. Studies have shown that moving faster towards this aim could save Hawaii $3 to $7 billion between 2020 and 2045.

The savings range from $3 to $7 billion, emphasizing these points: 1) moderate solar energy costs combined with low oil prices (for $3 billion in savings); and 2) low costs with high oil prices (for $7 billion in savings). Kauai has shed light on by depending on battery storage and to store clean energy for later release onto the grid.

Solar-Plus-Storage
Kauai is a co-op utility gives power sharing how to adopt to solar power quicker. It’s advanced from 8 percent solar energy in 2011 to 44 percent now, which is 27 percent above for the rest of Hawaii.

The island wants to create 50 percent of its electricity from clean energy by 2023, and 70 percent by 2030. The cost of solar energy from a new solar-plus-storage system on Kauai will be 11 cents per kilowatt-hour. Hawaii’s governor signed a law stating that by 2020, the utilities commission must design performance incentives and penalties to tie the utility’s profit to its achievement on performance metrics.

This breaks the link between investment levels and allowed revenues. Two of the key performance measures affordability of electric bills and quick integration of clean energy. In response, Hawaiian Electric has been working with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to conduct methods to modernize its island network to incorporate low-cost clean power.

The answer for Hawaiian Electric is to run the Rhodium Group’s numbers through its own utility model. This would assist with creating its own estimate of the cost deduction from a fast solar energy ramp. If the public utility doesn’t have a planning model for this purpose, the utility may need to first upgrade its planning model then re-run the Rhodium Group’s analysis.

Assuming that Hawaiian Electric validates the Rhodium study’s results then it should roll out an aggressive renewable energy ramp. They’ve been working with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to understand how it can modernize its island networks to incorporate low-cost solar to quicken its pace to accelerate its renewable energy transition.

These methods lead to its happier customers receiving lower electric rates while Hawaiian Electric could get performance incentives under Hawaii’s new state law.

Conclusion

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