For a moment, it looked like Hawaii had found the perfect answer to the nation's rooftop solar war.
Since the advent of rooftop solar, utilities, installers and regulators have struggled with how much to compensate for this type of consumer-facing energy production. This question has become more complex and interesting as battery prices have fallen and sales have increased: rooftop solar systems can now supply electricity to the grid not only when the sun is shining, but also when electricity levels are high. Power on demand is more valuable to the grid than excess solar generation at midday, and the clean energy industry has sought to capture that benefit by connecting households into so-called virtual power plants.
The problem is that no one has agreed on how to estimate the cost of services for hundreds or thousands of homes, all of which have batteries and digital controls. Overpaying may result in higher bills for other utility customers. If you're paying too little, there's no point in participating in a home solar program. But with a good trade-off between costs and benefits, virtual power plants make the grid cleaner and more profitable, using existing private infrastructure for everyone's benefit.
Hawaii achieved this exchange under pressure. Facing a potential power shortage due to the closure of a large coal-fired power plant on the island of Oahu in 2022, state regulators have approved a program in which Hawaiian Electric will pay households to install batteries in its rooftop solar systems. When customers agree to feed power into the grid for two hours each night when the sun goes down and the island needs power, they pay thousands of dollars up front and additional monthly fees for the service. This is a rare case where responsible utilities and the rooftop solar industry have worked together to solve grid problems with clean energy generated by customers.
Battery Bonus was a huge success. By December 2023, the 40 MW registration plan has been exceeded. So far, participants have reduced demand on Oahu's grid by 15 to 17 megawatts daily between 6 and 8:30 p.m., said Lani Shinsato, associate director of customer energy resources for Hawaiian Electric. But this number will grow in size and importance as all registered customers launch their systems.
It's hard to overstate the significance of this achievement: In less than two years, Hawaii's energy industry has built the nation's most powerful solar-powered home network, sending power daily to the larger grid on demand. These programs typically take several years to gain approval, then several more years to be tested on a small scale, and few manage to provide meaningful services to the network.
That makes the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission's decision last month even more surprising. Instead of making battery rewards permanent, regulators approved a tracking program that eliminates many of the things that made participation so attractive to consumers.
Battery Bonus has stopped accepting new applicants since the end of December. Moving forward, those looking to sign up to make some money and help their Hawaii electric customers will need to take advantage of the new Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program.
Everyone seems to agree that BYOD aims to promote distributed energy in Hawaii and help the islands transition away from fossil fuels, which still account for about 70% of Hawaiian Electric's power generation in 2022.
“Thanks to strong customer feedback, Battery Bonus was able to achieve its goal of adding significant energy reserves to the Oahu grid,” Shinsato told Canary Media. “As we promote BYOD, customers can be motivated to provide network services while playing a critical role in Hawaii's transition to clean energy.
However, new rules complicate the situation and significantly reduce compensation for the same services provided by Battery Bonus. Solar industry executives are calling it a disaster for Hawaii's solar industry and on Dec. 14 called on the Public Utilities Commission to reconsider its decision. The request was rejected by consumer and energy advocates who considered the matter settled, but solar advocates are still hoping for change.
“This is a big policy mistake,” said Rocky Mold, executive director of the Hawaii Solar Energy Association. “This undoes years of progress we have made. This makes Hawaii a cautionary tale again.”
The phrase "back to" refers to Hawaii's checkered history of solar energy shifts, which can be compared to its Goldilocks and its own porridge phases.
Hawaii, which has abundant sunshine and the nation's highest electricity rates, was one of the first states to adopt net metering, which initially paid consumers the full retail price for solar energy exported to the grid. It was hot, and utilities quickly became concerned about the amount of solar power flowing through the island's grid. In 2015, he persuaded regulators to scrap net-metering and replace them with rules that essentially removed incentives for households to add solar power to the grid, an abrupt move that led to the collapse of the state's solar market for several years.
Fast forward to 2022: Regulators, then led by former distributed energy expert Jay Griffin, quickly pushed for a battery bonus to offset some of the evening energy lost when coal plants shut down. All key stakeholders believed that a battery incentive program would provide fair compensation for the services these solar-powered homes provide to the public grid: and the mix was a perfect fit. Today, solar proponents worry that constant battery replacement as a bonus will introduce a wedge into this otherwise perfect mess.
“If you don't set the correct compensation, you won't be able to enroll in these programs. This creates a program that no one will sign up for,” Mold said.
This means burning light now is wasting a proven resource that will help Hawaii meet its statutory goal of eliminating fossil fuels from the electricity mix by 2045.
New rules cut benefits and increase uncertainty
The solar wars have a certain sanctimoniousness, with utilities claiming "unfair cost shifting" to the low-income consumers they claim to care about so much, and solar advocates predicting apocalyptic visions if their favorite incentives are eliminated. But the details of Hawaii's BYOD decision regarding the Solar Wars raise a few red flags for potential participants.
The solar industry is primarily concerned with complexity, as software must be easy to convince potential customers at the kitchen table.
“This BYOD program is so technically complex that it is incomprehensible to anyone except someone who understands this area of technology,” said Marco Mangeldorf, a longtime Hawaii solar expert and president of local installation company Provision Solar in Hilo. Answering calls from solar energy company customers who have opted for Smart DER (Solar Energy Export Tariff) and don't know how to interpret their bills can be a constant nightmare.
Earthjustice attorney Isaac Moriwaki, who co-authored the proposal to amend the rule, expressed concern about the added complexity.
“I think the PUC lost sight of the big picture and was thinking too much about adding more technicalities and more complexity to a program that would ultimately ruin everything,” he said.
To understand what the critics are talking about, here's a quick overview of the incentive structure I was able to put together after a week of studying the solution. Be patient with me.
Let's say your downwind neighbor, sunny Kailua, really wants a battery bonus: He buys a 5-kilowatt battery, gets $4,250 in cash from the utility, and pays every night to supply the community with clean energy without a second thought. about payment orders. It looks tempting.
So you should check how much you can earn with the same battery but offering the same service under the new BYOD rules. The first thing you'll notice is that you won't get thousands of dollars up front. You get $500 ($100 per kilowatt of power). If you buy two batteries to double the much-needed evening power you send to the grid, you'll still get $500 (double for low- and moderate-income households). This doesn't help much with battery consumption, but perhaps the performance boost will help.
If you sign up for the basics—two hours of broadcasting per day, as well as the battery bonus—you'll now earn $5 per kilowatt per month. The battery alone costs $25 per month, which significantly reduces your high energy bills. You can also get paid for all the kilowatt-hours the utility asks you to put into the grid, according to this time breakdown:
This means you make money by charging your batteries with solar panels and then sharing them with the grid to make sure your neighbors have enough power to keep their lights on.
Just one thing to keep in mind: in order to take part in all this grid tech work, regulators are requiring you to move your retail electricity rates to a new, time-based pricing system (regulators call it ARD TOU. but Hawaiian Electric describes it this way). "Move and record"). The project will be completed in 2022, but has not yet reached widespread adoption as it must first go through a one-year pilot phase to ensure there are no unintended consequences for consumers due to different amounts of electricity charged at different times. By signing up to help the network manage your battery, you are now voluntarily signing up to participate in this testing group.
Moriwaki believes it is a "shock level inhibitor." Essentially, the unknown risks of moving to a new, untested pricing structure will likely discourage people from signing up for BYOD.
But let's assume that this doesn't put you off and that you instead appreciate the technical advantage of pricing electricity a little closer to actual consumption. The time-based retail prices that most residential customers will pay for electricity under this new structure are as follows:
You may find that the retail price is higher than the export price for the same period. Then, when the utility asks you to do the right thing and support the island's power grid during peak hours, you charge the grid per kilowatt-hour and earn 33 cents. But that same kilowatt-hour costs 52 cents if you store it and use it yourself, offsetting the need to buy electricity from the grid at a higher rate.
Every time you do what you're told, you sell at a loss. This is a big difference from the Battery Bonus, which guarantees a retail price on all exports required under the program to prevent consumers from producing what they need.
“Consumers must receive at least retail value when accessing these programs, otherwise there is a perverse economic incentive not to participate,” Mold said.
Finally, you start your BYOD career with a modest income of $500. Then you earn up to $25 a month and lose money every time you feed electricity into the evening grid instead of using it yourself. If you export enough kilowatt-hours daily, the loss could exceed your monthly balance and reduce your bonus by $500. After a few years, you could lose money by answering a service call.
A Public Utilities Commission spokesman declined to comment on the pending request to reconsider its decision. Shinsato said Hawaiian expects a positive response from electric customers, but note that byod is a new program and the utility is prepared to update it if necessary.
“When participation is surprisingly low, as it has been in the past, we can recommend that the Public Utility Commission develop, review and approve programs with input from solar industry lawyers and consumers,” he said. . .
Instead of a cooperative network, an “awakening” is emerging.
But the best part is that Hawaii's new networking program faces multifaceted complexity and uncertainty among potential participants. At worst, their coffers were gradually emptied in exchange for strengthening the island network.
That could spell trouble for the state's solar industry, which has successfully sold its battery bonus program after the turmoil caused by previous solar regulatory reforms. It is difficult to say for sure how much of a market decline it will take. But battery bonus offers were a "key driver" for many of Hawaii's large solar producers last year, Mold reports, and the industry expects new grid maintenance programs to boost the market in coming years.
Alternatively, confused customers can opt for self-sufficiency only, which means they install the right-sized solar systems and batteries to suit their specific needs and don't have to worry about the hassle of exporting the entire system. Non-exporting households are also not required to apply a trial rate based on duration of use.
“The main goal of creating byod was to combine these assets and create a win-win situation and skills, supporting the network as a battery bonus,” Marwaki said. Instead, Moriwaki said, the rules create a messy situation: "The only effective way is to load the network and essentially split it up." »
By battery reward, MORIWAKE means rewarding participants when resources needed by the entire community are protected. But new rules are cutting into profits and forcing solar owners to meet their own needs instead of helping the system as a whole.
“This system has turned away from that [cooperative network] point of view and is moving towards self-utilization and the zamindari point of view,” says Mold.
In separate conversations, Mold and Morevac talk with more than expected enthusiasm about terrible things like export rates and transfer controls. In addition to threatening solar industry jobs, the move could jeopardize Hawaii's ability to meet its clean energy goals as it builds the state's power.
Hawaii still needs the cleanest energy possible
The Public Utilities Commission's BYOD decision allows utilities to pay less for the service provided by a distributed solar array than the battery bonus. The decision is based on the idea that the battery bounty was a one-time response to an emergency, and life in Hawaii has now returned to normal.
In this costly case, the consumer protection lawyer responsible for protecting the interests of all utility customers raised this issue several times. The office did not respond to a question in time for publication, but Canary media mentioned in a statement that the next program said "the next program should not impose an unwanted burden on non-partners that could exacerbate equity issues." Compensation should be related to marginal costs, not an “Emergency Program to overcome short-term resource shortages.” Hawaiian Electric supported this argument.
The award for the batteries was actually an urgent reaction to a difficult situation: the largest power station in LLCOO, working on fossil fuel, was on the threshold of closing, and almost all large projects for the production of pure energy under the control of the Hawai Electric were postponed or even abandoned. Partners developer. This put the island in an indefinite state associated with its transformation into clean power without all the resources necessary for lighting.
Today, the coal power station has disappeared; Some projects to replace Hawaiian Electric have already been implemented, but many of them have not yet been completed. The company depends on the outdated oil power plants to generate electricity, and two of these power units during the flood forced the company to turn off the electricity for its customers every 30 minutes. It is unclear whether the "emergency" of the past is really over.
Oahu needs all the power to achieve this. But in order to achieve a legally compulsory and caste goal in the field of climate, its entire park must be converted into a power plant with zero output of carbon dioxide (some may object that the electricity race must be solved on time). The climatic crisis is urgent.) One to this day. Resource produces more pure energy than any other: solar energy on the roof, which allowed to generate solar energy on the scale of communal enterprises in the electric region of Hawaii in 2022.
The decision to reduce the remuneration for the BYOD program is due to the fact that the Hawaiian Electric evaluates some problems associated with large renewable energy facilities that clearly exceed the cost of oil of old benefits that surpassed the expectations of recent years.
It is possible that the solar farm will be created in the future, when changes are expected, perhaps oil prices will fall, and these factors will make a home battery farm less important for the reliability of the network. However, now it is known how quickly the solar industry of Hawaii will be able to provide clean and reliable energy in the presence of appropriate incentives. Today, these incentives are lost.
Do you want to improve your life? #Philippines #anglescity #Emigrant #Pamanga #Travelvlog
