Leading the Way to a Clean Energy Future for Hawaii

It will always be a challenge to provide quality power to customers on an island the size of the state of Connecticut. Over the past century Hawaii Electric Light met the demand for energy by building larger power plants. More customers also meant new switching systems and transmission lines that had to be built and maintained.

Alternate energy sources like hydro power have been a part of the Hawaii Electric Light system from the beginning. Integrating bagasse - generated from burning sugar cane fiber - was introduced in the ‘70s. Power produced from geothermal sources was first explored as early as the late ‘50s.

Wind, too, has been tried with varying degrees of success, but new technologies looming on the horizon shows promise. So much so, that the whole way electricity is produced and distributed is being explored.

In 2012, Hawaii Electric Light signed a contract to purchase renewable energy from Hu Honua Bioenergy to provide Hawaii Island with 21.5 megawatts (MW) of renewable, dispatchable firm capacity fueled by locally grown biomass.

The state, County of Hawaii, and Hawaii Electric Light Company announced a strategic partnership in 2014 to share resources and attract companies interested in testing and evaluating pre-commercial energy storage units at the Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology (HOST) Park in Kailua-Kona, managed by the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA).

In 2015, Hawaii Electric Light integrated 6 Feed-in Tariff (FIT) projects totaling 1.32 MW capacity. The FIT program is designed to encourage the addition of more renewable energy projects in Hawaii, providing an easy way for individuals, small businesses, governmental entities, or other developers to sell renewable energy to the company.

In 2016, Hawaii Island customers’ use of renewable electricity passed the halfway mark for the first time. 54 percent of the electricity used by Hawaii Electric Light customers came from renewable resources, up from 49 percent in 2015. Through a unique collaboration with Stem, Inc., Energy Excelerator and the Hawaii Department of Education, all public elementary, middle, and high schools in the Hawaiian Electric Companies' service territory received new, intelligent, energy-monitoring devices and software in 2016. The software allows individual schools and DOE energy managers access to real-time energy use and cost data, allowing them to adapt efficiency measures and uncover savings opportunities.

Hawaii Electric Light, with a mix of geothermal, solar, wind and hydroelectricity, had a renewable percentage of 57 percent in 2017, up from 54 percent in 2016. We ranked seventh at 16.4 watts per customer of energy storage on the annual Top 10 utility industry lists compiled by the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA).

During 2018, the Hawaiian Electric Companies began contract negotiations with developers for seven major solar-plus-storage projects on three islands, representing the largest infusion of renewable energy in state history. Two of the planned projects, totaling approximately 60 megawatts and 240 megawatt-hours of storage, will be located on Hawaii Island.

Hawaiian Electric Companies’ total solar capacity surged 21 percent, increasing from 745 cumulative installed megawatts in 2018 to 902 megawatts in 2019. It was the largest one-year increase since the company began tracking solar capacity in 2005. Hawaiian Electric Light residential customers using rooftop solar systems increased from 18 percent to 19 percent as well.