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Monday, January 8, 2024
Rolling Blackout Hits Within Days After Kapolei Battery Farm Goes Online
By News Release @ 11:21 PM :: 2888 Views :: Honolulu County, Energy

Rolling Blackout Hits Within Days After Kapolei Battery Farm Goes Online

HPR: … The Kapolei Energy Storage facility on Oʻahu is officially online.

After several delays, the utility-scale battery farm kicked off commercial operations shortly before the holidays. It has a storage capacity of 565 megawatt-hours of electricity, making it the largest storage project in the state.

The project's developer, San Francisco-based Plus Power, believes it is the first time a battery has been used by a major utility to balance the grid.

"There really hasn't yet been a standalone storage battery project that has proven it at scale," said Bob Rudd, the chief commercial officer at Plus Power.

Its capacity will help Hawaiian Electric deal with the problem of clean energy curtailment, also called over-generation, Rudd said. …

read … Just the beginning

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CONSERVATION ALERT: Rolling Oahu outages expected tonight, customers asked to reduce use of electricity

HECO News Release 1/8/2024

HONOLULU, Jan. 8. 2024 – Due to a shortage of reserve generation capacity, Hawaiian Electric may turn off power for 30-minute periods across Oahu beginning at about 5:30 p.m. as follows:

Begin-End
Area

5:30 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
Pearl City – Waimalu

6:00 p.m.-6:30 p.m.
Majority of Leeward Oahu

6:30 p.m.-7:00 p.m.
Kalihi, Keolu, Pohakupu, Kailua, Waimanalo, Kahala

7:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
Kakaako, Kaimuki, Kahala, Kapahulu, Waikiki

7:30 p.m.-8:00 p.m.
Nuuanu, School Street area

8:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
Hawaii Kai, Waimanalo

Two large generating units at Waiau Power Plant went offline this afternoon and while assessments and repairs are underway, it is not expected the units will be back online by tonight. In addition, due to heavy cloud cover and rainy conditions across the island, production from solar energy systems has been reduced and battery energy storage systems could not charge to full capacity.

Residents and businesses are asked to help by conserving power during the peak electricity use time of 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and postponing heavy energy use, such as running dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers, and unnecessary air conditioning. Large commercial customers have also been asked to conserve.

If there is insufficient generation to meet demand, Hawaiian Electric will begin "load shedding," a process of systematically disconnecting customers in various areas around the island, as part of a predetermined sequence under the company's emergency procedures. The targeted emergency outages are necessary to avoid a more widespread outage or damage to the electric system from an imbalance of too much demand versus too little available generation.

"We apologize for the need to take the extraordinary step of initiating outages and we appreciate the patience of everyone who is affected," said Jim Kelly, vice president of government, community relations and corporate communications for Hawaiian Electric. "Faced with a potential generation shortfall, we want to give customers a heads up so they can plan around these brief outages and help conserve power at a critical time. On an island, we're on our own and there's no one to call on when our reserve generation runs short."

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