High Penetration Renewable Integration Case Study for Island Power Systems in Hawai'i
(Room Jupiter 7)
03 Sep 15
9:00 AM
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10:30 AM
Island and isolated power systems offer unique opportunities and challenges to the integration of high penetration levels of solar and wind energy. Renewable integration requires resolution of not only the technical interconnection issues, but the often more challenging policy and commercial issues. Policy decisions and the structure of commercial agreements require alignment of multiple stakeholders and a deep understanding of the technical limitations and associated business risks as well as prospective mitigation measures and their associated costs. In addition, enabling policies and laws passed at a national level are often less than optimal for small or isolated power systems. The history of the integration of renewable energy resources in the Pacific island of Hawai?i provides an invaluable case study into the technical, policy and business issues faced by isolated grid systems and the solutions that were developed through collaboration and alignment of interests of national and local stakeholders. In particular, the Island of Maui has become the leader and test bed of technical and commercial solutions needed to achieve high penetration levels of wind and solar energy. Maui has a daily peak demand of approximately 190 MW and a minimum load of approximately 90 MW. To date, Maui has connected 72 MW of wind power and over 50 MW of distributed solar power, which is projected to reach more than 70 MW in the near future. Applying lessons learned from previous renewable projects developed in the islands and the results of in-depth wind and solar integration studies, the island has not only successfully integrated the renewable resources, but also generated cost savings for its customers. This paper provides a case study of renewable energy integration success on Maui and the lessons learned that are applicable for many other areas of the world, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.