Project aims to solve renewable energy puzzles

The global renewable energy community will be watching Maui for the next few years, as officials test cutting-edge technology designed to allow utilities to incorporate more wind and solar power into their electrical grids.

The multimillion-dollar Maui Smart Grid Project brings together a host of government agencies and private-sector energy companies from the United States and Japan in an unprecedented effort to mitigate one of the biggest barriers to greater use of alternative energy sources: their unpredictable nature.

Wide swings in energy output from wind turbines and solar panels can wreak havoc on electrical grids, which were designed and built to distribute energy generated by firm sources, like oil-fired power plants.

The Maui project will tackle the problem on all fronts using a variety of technologies and devices to smooth fluctuations in energy output and a two-way communication system that will allow the Maui Electric Co. to monitor how much renewable energy is being generated at any given moment and give the utility the ability to turn off homeowners’ appliances during peak electrical loads.

A consortium from Japan, led by the government-run New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, is contributing $37 million to the project. From the U.S. side the Department of Energy is adding $13 million that will be matched by a group of private-sector participants.

The Hawaii Natural Energy Institute at the University of Hawaii, which is coordinating the U.S. effort, is signing up 200 volunteers in the South Kihei area to participate in the demonstration project, which will continue through 2014.

Hitachi Ltd., the lead company from the Japanese side, last week announced its two subcontractors on the project, clearing the way for work to begin. Joining Hitachi will be Cyber Defense Institute and Mizuki Corporate Bank. Cyber Defense will probe the system for security vulnerabilities, while Mizuki will conduct a cost-benefit analysis.

Information gained will be welcomed by utility officials on Maui, which has the most wind energy flowing into its grid of any Hawaiian island. The project also will be closely watched by renewable energy players from around the globe.

"In several ways, pieces of this project are pretty cutting-edge," said James Griffin, project director for institute. "Concepts that people have talked about will be tested for the first time in a live setting."

Mark Glick, administrator of the state Energy Office, said the project is another example of where Hawaii is taking the lead in renewable energy development.

"Since Hawaii is being used as a test bed by the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense and the Department of Agriculture, a lot of international firms have recognized this and would also like to use the state as a test bed to plant their seeds," Glick said.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie has planned a Nov. 22 ceremony where all parties will sign a memorandum of understanding for the project.

MECO said the project will include installing smart controls at its facilities in the Kihei area at regional and neighborhood levels. The technologies include distributed control systems that will manage resources such as smart inverters to regulate output of photovoltaic systems, load control devices and controls to manage electric vehicle charging stations and battery storage systems.

The project also will help prepare the Maui grid for widespread adoption of electric vehicles using an advanced charging management system to connect MECO system controls with charging stations islandwide. The utility said that will allow it to actively manage electric vehicle charging to balance generation and load.