Hawaii Utility Integration Initiatives to Enable Wind (Wind HUI) Final Technical Report
To advance the state and nation toward clean energy, Hawaii is pursuing an aggressive Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), 40% renewable generation and 30% energy efficiency and transportation initiatives by 2030. Additionally, with support from federal, state and industry leadership, the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative (HCEI) is focused on reducing Hawaii's carbon footprint and global warming impacts. To keep pace with the policy momentum and changing industry technologies, the Hawaiian Electric Companies are proactively pursuing a number of potential system upgrade initiatives to better manage variable resources like wind, solar and demand-side and distributed generation alternatives (i.e. DSM, DG). As variable technologies will continue to play a significant role in powering the future grid, practical strategies for utility integration are needed. Hawaiian utilities are already contending with some of the highest penetrations of renewables in the nation in both large-scale and distributed technologies. With island grids supporting a diverse renewable generation portfolio at penetration levels surpassing 40%, the Hawaiian utilities experiences can offer unique perspective on practical integration strategies. Efforts pursued in this industry and federal collaborative project tackled challenging issues facing the electric power industry around the world. Based on interactions with a number of western utilities and building on decades of national and international renewable integration experiences, three priority initiatives were targeted by Hawaiian utilities to accelerate integration and management of variable renewables for the islands. The three initiatives included: Initiative 1: Enabling reliable, real-time wind forecasting for operations by improving short-term wind forecasting and ramp event modeling capabilities with local site, field monitoring; Initiative 2: Improving operators situational awareness to variable resources via real-time grid condition monitoring using PMU devices and enhanced grid analysis tools; and Initiative 3: Identifying grid automation and smart technology architecture retrofit/improvement opportunities following a systematic review approach, inclusive of increasing renewables and variable distributed generation. Each of the initiative was conducted in partnership with industry technology and equipment providers to facilitate utility deployment experiences inform decision making, assess supporting infrastructure cost considerations, showcase state of the technology, address integration hurdles with viable workarounds. For each initiative, a multi-phased approach was followed that included 1) investigative planning and review of existing state-of-the-art, 2) hands on deployment experiences and 3) process implementation considerations. Each phase of the approach allowed for mid-course corrections, process review and change to any equipment/devices to be used by the utilities. To help the island grids transform legacy infrastructure, the Wind HUI provided more systematic approaches and exposure with vendor/manufacturers, hand-on review and experience with the equipment not only from the initial planning stages but through to deployment and assessment of field performance of some of the new, remote sensing and high-resolution grid monitoring technologies. HELCO became one of the first utilities in the nation to install and operate a high resolution (WindNet) network of remote sensing devices such as radiometers and SODARs to enable a short-term ramp event forecasting capability. This utility-industry and federal government partnership produced new information on wind energy forecasting including new data additions to the NOAA MADIS database; addressed remote sensing technology performance and O&M (operations and maintenance) challenges; assessed legacy equipment compatibility issues and technology solutions; evaluated cyber-security concerns; and engaged in community outreach opportunities that will help guide Hawaii and the nation toward more reliable adoption of clean energy resources. Results from these efforts are helping to inform Hawaiian utilities continue to Transform infrastructure, Incorporate renewable considerations and priorities into new processes/procedures, and Demonstrate the technical effectiveness and feasibility of new technologies to shape our pathways forward. Lessons learned and experience captured as part of this effort will hopefully provide practical guidance for others embarking on major legacy infrastructure transformations and renewable integration projects.
- Research Organization:
- Hawaiian Electric Company
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE; USDOE EE Office of Wind and Hydropower Technologies (EE-2B)
- DOE Contract Number:
- EE0001379
- OSTI ID:
- 1049311
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/EE0001379-1; TRN: US201218%%191
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Synchrophasor Visual Integration and Event Evaluation for Utilities (SynchroVIEEU) with High Penetration of Renewables
Technology solutions for wind integration in ERCOT
Related Subjects
AUTOMATION
CARBON FOOTPRINT
COMPATIBILITY
DECISION MAKING
ELECTRIC POWER INDUSTRY
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
GREENHOUSE EFFECT
HAWAII
IMPLEMENTATION
MAINTENANCE
MANAGEMENT
MONITORING
NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
PLANNING
RADIOMETERS
REMOTE SENSING
RESOLUTION
TRANSFORMATIONS
INTEGRATED ENERGY UTILITY SYSTEMS
WIND POWER
wind forecasting
SODAR
WindNET
observational targeting
remote sensing