Increase the use of smart meters

Charting Hawaii’s map to renewable energy is no easy task, but there’s no turning back. Hawaiian Electric Co., which has been working on a “smart grid” concept for the better part of a decade, last week filed a final $205 million Grid Modernization Strategy with state regulators, laying out its plan to build a more resilient grid while meeting the state’s 100 percent renewables mandate.

Two years ago, Gov. David Ige signed into law a bill that directs the state’s utilities to generate all of their electricity sales from renewable energy resources by 2045 — an ambitious mandate for the most petroleum-dependent state in the nation. What’s more, due to the continued costs tied to importing most of the energy used throughout the state, ratepayers shoulder the highest prices nationwide — more than twice the U.S. average.

While the state’s dominant electric utility intends to hit the 100 percent mark five years early and to significantly increase our renewable energy use in the near term, HECO’s overall transition to maximizing efficiency in energy use has a long way to go. For example, while HECO is still sizing up plans for deployment of “smart metering,” the utility cooperative on Kauai, KIUC, has already provided each customer with a high-tech electronic device tailored to optimize efficient management of the grid and customer energy use.

Over the past several years, HECO has stepped up transparency and collaboration efforts. More of that is needed to ensure effective energy grid updates on Oahu, Maui Electric on Maui, Molokai and Lanai, and Hawaii Electric Light on Hawaii island, slated for the next six years.

In January, the Public Utilities Commission, which oversees and regulates public utilities for reliable service and reasonable rates, rejected HECO’s last grid modernization proposal, maintaining that the $340 million price tag was too high and it lacked sufficient detail. The PUC is now accepting public comments on the current plan, due Sept. 13.

The latest plan calls for systemwide upgrades stressing more renewable resources, both customer-sited and grid-sourced, and giving customers more control. It’s concerning that to trim the price tag, the proposed rollout calls for “strategic” rather than systemwide distribution.

HECO intends to target smart meters for neighborhoods where there are high numbers of rooftop solar energy systems. Also, they would be installed at the homes of customers who want to participate in new programs such as demand response, which encourages using electricity when more renewable energy is on the grid; or time-of-use, a program that charges three different rates throughout the day instead of one flat rate.

This strategy is a start, which must be quickly followed by installation of smart meters systemwide, for the sake of fairness and maximizing everyday meter-use efficiency in the islands.

Jeff Mikulina, executive director of Blue Planet Foundation, a clean-energy-focused nonprofit, makes the forward-thinking point that HECO’s plan should prompt an even “broader grid modernization, one that creates an open, accessible platform to unlock the full value of distributed energy resources,” such as rooftop solar, electric vehicles, energy management and batteries.

While these resources now pose challenges to the grid, he said, grid modernization could “turn these liabilities into assets by smartly controlling how they operate and sending price signals that encourage their use in harmony with what the grid needs.” To realize that outcome, Hawaii needs to have a resilient, accessible system in place.

By 2023, HECO envisions transforming the existing grid into a state-of-the-art “cyber-physical platform,” with integration and optimization of resources.

For the sake of accelerating renewable energy strides and keeping the price tag for modernization as low as possible, HECO needs to work in tandem with green-minded industry and ratepayers.