Can a centralized system truly be resilient?
By Lauren Ballesteros-Watanabe | Reading time: 5 minutes
On Thursday February 24, Hawaiian Electric held a community meeting to seek public input for their next round of Request for Proposals (RFP) for utility-scale firm renewable energy. As of Monday, February 28th, the video had over 1,000 views. Their presentation focused on an explainer about “firm generation,” a resource available 24/7, 365 days a year, except when a facility needs maintenance. Examples given of firm sources were biofuels, biomass (crops, animal agriculture, waste-to-energy) and geothermal, all set by statute as renewable resources in the renewable portfolio standard. For Oʻahu, they are looking to procure projects that range between 500-700 MW capacity. Overall, the meeting was an agreeable opportunity to engage with the public on the RFP, as urged by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). If chosen, the utility-scale projects will come online by 2030 and will have contracts to operate for 30 years. Although there were important questions from the community about siting and community involvement, it was clear that the utility and developers are largely shaping our energy future.
What comes to mind when thinking about committing to another 30 years of a centralized energy grid is- resilience and vulnerability. For example, we can look at the power crisis in Texas last year that left millions of families, businesses, and medical facilities without power during a storm. Their energy system is similar to Hawaiʻi’s in that it is largely dependent on fossil fuels and large power plants hooked up to an antiquated centralized grid owned by for-profit companies.
The good news is that with increasing pressure from local community leaders, a progressive Public Utilities Commission, and a general call from ratepayers, a modern, resilient and clean energy system is within our reach. This could look like a smart energy system built on renewable energy sources that don’t run out, distributed generation technologies that don’t rely on vulnerable infrastructure, and energy storage systems that provide backup electricity for when the power goes out. This is critical because the grid facilitates virtually all aspects of our lives and is a lifeline to communities, making any measure of resilience incomplete without a focus on community. With a distributed network, a crisis can hit and will catalyze peak demands, but there’s a wide network in place to hold the community steady. Not only does this system ensure back-up options, but it also provides quicker response and recovery.
Some other characteristics of resilience to consider…
Energy Efficiency
Although founded upon the principle of energy efficiency, a centralized system loses ample amounts of energy through its process. With electricity flowing through high-voltage wires over long distances to the end-user, line loss – the energy lost during the transmission and distribution through the power grid – offers an immense blow to efficiency.
With distributed generation, there’s a fraction of the mileage – if any – on the energy, nearly eliminating any loss. It’s produced within the local vicinity and doesn’t require millions of miles of transmission lines that demand routine maintenance. Less travel, less maintenance, more energy.
Sustainability
Centralized generation was originally favored for its ability to mass-produce electricity which came at the hand of power plants fueled by fossil fuels and nuclear energy. With the onset of inarguable climate change, these factories lie at the root of a complex problem. From air pollutants to contaminated water to extensive land use, large-scale utilities impact the environment in a big way. Distributed energy systems are more conducive to renewable energy technologies, i.e rooftop solar and community-based renewable energy projects.
Reliability
Fossil fuels aren’t as reliable as they seem. Fossil fuels are often touted as being reliable sources of energy. The 2022 legislature is even considering exemptions for fossil fuel use during a catastrophe after 2045. But fossil fuels are vulnerable to supply shortages, disruptions and price changes, all of which can have big impacts. Back to the Texas example, last winter demand competition for gas to generate electricity led to people losing their heat and, in some cases, living for up to four days without power. Even those who kept their power still felt the effect: some received electric bills of up to $17,000. And as Texans were shivering in the dark, gas producers were raking in billions of dollars in profits off of consumers. Hawaiʻi may not have issues with extreme cold, but with the decrease in trade winds and increase in heat waves, there are certainly parallels to be drawn locally.
Demand
Electricity demands fluctuate constantly, it can be hard to predict but the utility has to in order to create a consistent flow to meet it– a very risky game to play. With this model, an entire city depends upon the power grid’s ability to deliver enough energy that is required at any given time. If the utilities fail, a widespread shutdown results. On Oʻahu, the current energy loss predicted for the shutdown of the AES coal plant has left the PUC, the utility, and stakeholders in disarray about how to produce an adequate substitute. However, the options on the table are large and contentious projects, designed by corporate developers, to meet this demand.
The most resilient systems are local.
Federal research has shown repeatedly that with smart planning, investments in the grid, and deployment of energy storage, an electric grid powered primarily by wind and solar energy can meet our energy needs under a variety of conditions and do so 24/7/365. Distributed renewable energy systems, like rooftop solar paired with home batteries, can provide power to homes or businesses even when the larger grid goes down. And when linked together into microgrids, which Hawaiian Electric is pursuing as well, distributed energy systems can help whole communities maintain power even when the electric grid is down, while also relieving strain on the overall grid. Going back to the Texas example, during the 2021 cold snap, microgrids kept the lights on at many essential facilities.
Hawaiʻi is going to face even more difficult and unpredictable challenges in the years to come. The current impacts of the climate crisis that we are experiencing make that clear. But a more resilient energy system is possible, and it starts by turning our thinking about energy upside down. Instead of envisioning our energy system from the top-down, i.e the utility and developers decide what it looks like, we should start from the bottom-up. We need to build energy efficient buildings and homes supplied by local energy sources backed up with distributed energy storage. It’s time to finally build the clean and resilient energy system we all deserve.
Advantageous Opportunity for Distributed Grid
With innovative, renewable technologies leading the forefront of the distributed generation model, this system shows a focus on long-term resiliency. Hawaiian Electric just launched a program that pays a cash incentive for customers on Oʻahu to add battery energy storage to an existing or new rooftop solar system. HECO set the terms for the total program term to last 10 years. On their site it states, “customers who participate must use and/or export electricity stored in the battery at the committed amount on a firm two-hour schedule specified by Hawaiian Electric between 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. (for example, 6:15 p.m. to 8:15 p.m.) daily including weekends and holidays through December 31, 2023.”
This one-time incentive is an example of a distributed energy resource that will help move Hawaiʻi toward our goal of 100% clean energy by 2045. It also adds more renewable resources to the grid in the short-term, when the AES coal-fired plant is retired in September 2022.
These strides in community engagement and transparency are happening because we have the pressure on HECO. They know we’re watching, so please share your comments at OahuRenewableRFP@hawaiianelectric.com!