 And welcome to Power Up Hawaii, where Hawaii comes together to walk towards a clean, renewable and just energy future. I am your host, Raya Salter. I am an energy attorney, a McLean energy advocate, and I am a community outreach specialist. I'm also the principal attorney of Imagine Power LLC. Today we're going to take a look at important energy and utility news from Hawaii around the country and the world as reported in the last week. First let's take a look at some recent developments in clean energy and clean energy policy in the islands. We'll start with this morning's reporting from the news. So there are two major power plants at Hawaii's military bases that could be in the works as reported by Pacific Business News. In regulatory filings regarding its updated energy plans, Hawaiian Electric Company revealed details for a 100-megawatt thermal energy plant at Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam in Honolulu and a 54-megawatt thermal energy plant at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Keniohe. The Honolulu utility said that both power plants were included in its updated plans as unit additions due to the grid modernization benefits provided by these projects. Now the Pearl Harbor Hickam plant provides potential benefits such as replacement capacity and potentially civil defense or Navy energy security. The Marine Corps Base has potential synergies between the goals of the Department of Defense and Hawaiian Electric that could be aligned through this project to provide mutually beneficial solutions to the benefit of all O'ahu customers says the utility. The two power plants would join another power plant at a Hawaii military installation. The 50-megawatt power plant at the Army Schofield Barracks broke ground last year. Now the project is being called the most survivable power plant on O'ahu and is expected to be operational by as early as 2018. The Schofield generating station is being built on about eight acres that will be leased from the Army to Hawaiian Electric. It will run on a blend of biofuels and be centrally located over eight miles from the ocean and about 900 feet above sea level, far from the possible coastal effects of tsunamis and storm surges. This is extremely important developments. One thing that is always important to watch is the military cooperation with the utility in aiming for energy security. So we all know that out here in the islands we are extremely vulnerable to any type of course price volatility and diesel fuel and oil prices can really shock our economy and we are vulnerable to any supply chain disruption. This is of course completely unacceptable to us as a community and completely unacceptable to the military in protecting all of us in our energy security. So it's interesting and important that the military is working with HECO to try and think of how can we have more power from renewable sources. Now it's also important to note two other things, one, 900 feet above sea level. So that is something that around the country utilities have or have not been grappling with as they are rolling forward with new grid modernization efforts. It is essential that the utility take a look at both where they are putting these assets and when they do so they must be looking at the most current projections of what sea level rise will be bringing because we have to remember these are assets that we will have for the next 50 to 100 years. So we need to know where that water level is going to be coming. In addition we know that we have rising temperatures so the equipment is actually going to have to perform at higher temperatures and that's another thing that needs to be thought about. And yes the news report says 900 feet above sea level far above any concern of sea level rise and tsunamis. But there is the additional threat of extreme weather events, storms and hurricanes that we are also going to need to prepare for. So as an exercise it's important it's something to watch. There wasn't a whole lot of detail given about what type of mutual benefit these plants will have for Hawaiian electric in addition to the Navy. It may be that there is a spike in demand at a certain time and that this will alleviate that we shall see. But interesting news and always important to watch what our military is doing to try and improve the military and energy security for Hawaii. Moving forward according to a company press release the Energy Accelerator has a new thought partnership. So a company called Enel through its U.S.-based renewable energy subsidiary Enel Green Power North America has become a global partner of and strategic advisor to the Energy Accelerator which of course is our incubator for clean energy startups. As a global partner Enel will be part of Energy Accelerator's strategic advisory board alongside the U.S. Department of Energy, GE Ventures, Blackstone and Power Utilities from five different countries among others to provide member startups with the support needed to develop innovative clean energy solutions. By joining Energy Accelerator Enel will access the organization's portfolio of startups as well as advise in the selection of projects to be supported by the incubator. The Energy Accelerator's approach complements Enel's incubator strategy and further expands the company's startup reach. In July 2016 Enel launched its first innovation hub in Tel Aviv Israel in collaboration with SOSA in the Junction one of the country's more successful innovation communities. Enel is also involved in several startup acceleration programs such as Energy Start in Latin America and Incense in Europe. Enel is working in North America and Nevada which is a novel project to combine geothermal, solar PV and solar thermal power in one. So this is interesting, we all, most of us who listen to think tech and follow the energy programs know about the Energy Accelerator, this extremely exciting program that is here to help find and finance the companies that are going to do the type of energy innovation that is going to provide solutions. So what the Energy Accelerator does is work with entrepreneurs, innovators, people who have got new technologies that they want to see grow and they carefully select who they want to have to be part of their incubator project and then through their operations they provide advice and support on how these companies can get to scale. So as you can imagine, this is really exciting especially if you're an entrepreneur with a fantastic idea that you think can save the world or save energy, but it's got to be a huge challenge to pick winners because of course the Energy Accelerators and the business of picking winners enter this new operation. Enel, apparently they've done work around the world in incubators in picking winners. So let's see, I think this could be an excellent collaboration and always an excellent sign that the Accelerator here in Hawaii, always thinking globally in terms of expanding America and Hawaii's energy influence. So really exciting, congratulations to Enel and to the Energy Accelerator. Moving along, I think we've got one more story that involves Hawaii and HIKO. So as reported by Sunil Patel of PowerOnline, HIKO is piloting virtual power plants. So HIKO and technology service companies STEM Inc. have successfully tested nearly one megawatt of energy storage systems at 29 commercial sites on Oahu, the company said on January 30. The novel pilot project, which sought the ability to connect many customers, energy storage with the utility comprises an energy storage fleet of different sizes that is installed at small businesses and local institutions along with STEM's predictive cloud-based software to help the businesses predict when their electric use will peak. STEM then synchronizes the power scope in the software information with data from HIKO's renewable generation monitoring and forecasting so that the utility can schedule stored power at the varied customer sites for added stability during times of solar variability or peak demand. Using site-specific weather information, renewable forecasts, and historical and real-time usage data, this software helps the businesses predict when their electric use will peak. It then responds to spikes in electricity demand by drawing on stored power to reduce peaks in customer use without requiring operational changes. So this is a virtual power plant, and according to HIKO, it is providing better real-time grid operations. These customer-cited solutions are an important piece of Hawaiian Electric's strategy, said Dora Nakafuji, HIKO's director of renewable energy planning. This shows we can scale behind-the-meter energy storage to create a more stable and efficient grid as we provide customers with higher levels of renewable energy to reduce fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions. So let's talk a little bit more about this virtual power plant concept because I think the article did a great job of explaining it, but it still perhaps could sound a little complicated in particular with talking about the various software. So this is why it's a virtual power plant, it's because it's not really a power plant at all. However, it is aggregating the storage of business customers and figuring out how to understand what the business customer's usage is at different times of day and when they need the most. And then for HIKO to also be able to understand and monitor when they can most use their renewable energy sources or where they are going to need to use less. So it's really a connecting the dots. Imagine if, imagine and they are batteries, imagine if a bunch of businesses in one area, each behind their own meter, they have their own battery. So are they each of them sort of utilizing that battery to the fullest extent that they could? Maybe, maybe not. Doesn't it make sense to figure out how do we understand how all of these businesses are using their batteries and using their energy and can we figure out how to best use it so that if that energy is stored, that means that can be used. So for instance, if that, say a block of businesses is using energy most at some point of day, say for instance refrigeration, refrigeration happens at 2 p.m. And you can call on what may be extra energy in a battery to shave that peak, which frees up HIKO, the system that HIKO is using to divert that energy elsewhere. Then in concert, HIKO is using their own software to understand and manage the ups and downs of availability of renewable sources, be it solar and wind, which have various availability at different times of day. And so from an abstract level, you can kind of use technology to figure out what's going on with the solar, use technology to figure out what's going on with the businesses, and then figure out frankly what makes the most sense, how can we most efficiently use the energy to the benefit of the businesses and to the benefit of the energy system. So we are now going to go to break, and we will be right back with more Power Up for Whitey. Hey everybody, it's me, Ian Davidson, host of a new show here at Think Tech called On the Go. What are you going to get during that show? I can't tell you. I can only tell you that it's going to be fun, and it's going to be sometimes. And I'm going to have a good time, and I hope that you do too. There's a bunch of stuff here at Think Tech. This is just another one. Take a chance on it. See how you like it. Thanks for watching. Hi. I'm Stan Energy Man, and I want you to be here every Friday. Noon. ThinkTechHawaii.com. Watch the show. Be there. I pity the fool who ain't. Hello. My name is Crystal. Let me tell you. My talk show, I'm all about health. It's healthy to talk about sex. It's healthy to talk about things that people don't talk about. It's healthy to discuss things that you think are unhealthy because you need to talk about it. So I welcome you to watch Quok Talk and engage in some provocative discussions on things that do relate to healthy issues and have a well-balanced attitude in life. Join me. Hi, and welcome back to Power Up Hawaii, where Hawaii comes together to walk towards a clean, renewable, and just energy future. I'm your host, Raya Salter. We just talked a bit about virtual power plants. And now let's go on to what I believe is some very troubling news as reported by Robert Walton of Utility Dive. So the Trump administration may end the Energy Star program. Now President Trump's anticipated rollback of energy and environmental regulations is likely to target swaths of rules many conservatives oppose, but also being caught up are bipartisan and roundly supported initiatives like Energy Star, which are saving consumers billions. So Trump is expected to issue several executive orders this week to begin rolling back energy regulations and climate change programs. Part of what top strategist and advisor Stephen Bannon has called the deconstruction of the administrative state. Now the Energy Star label allows manufacturers of products to submit for energy efficiency testing. The program has a relatively small budget, and according to the Obama administration saved consumers north of $30 billion on their electricity bills in one year. While the program could be transferred and run independently, critics of the White House's move say the Energy Star would likely lose some of its cachet. According to the program's website, it has saved more than $362 billion on consumer energy bills since 1992. For now, the program continues to run. This year, the EPA designated NEST Learning Thermostat an Energy Star product, making it the first thermostat to receive the acknowledgement since regulators stripped it from all programmable thermostats years ago. I actually think this is an extremely, extremely important and disturbing story. All right. Energy efficiency has often been a bipartisan approach to save money. Imagine one of the big things that energy efficiency advocates like to talk about, or anyone who remembers the 70s, we used to have these massive energy hog refrigerators that took up a massive slice of America's energy consumption. Everyone had these big, huge things in their house. It was wasting money and it wasn't needed. When they brought together new standards for those refrigerators and began to replace them, it changed what changed the energy profile, which became important as energy became more expensive. That's just a very small example of the importance of energy efficiency. It's hard to see how rolling back energy efficiency efforts does anything but cost consumers more money on their energy bills. If the idea is to have folks pay more for energy, then pull back on energy efficiency programs. I'm not going to go further than that. We know that we know for a fact that this administration is very friendly with the fossil fuel industry. Exxon, former Exxon head is running our state department. I will say that it is extremely disappointing and challenging that energy efficiency efforts that save all of us money have become partisan efforts. I think that's very bad news indeed. Moving right along, this is something that's important and could also be of importance in Hawaii. The biggest utility in California has offered new energy strategies for marijuana growers. Utility Dive reports that just months after California's voters elected to legalize recreational marijuana, the state's largest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric, has said it will offer agricultural rates and energy efficiency programs to permitted commercial growers, for whom 70% or more of their metered use is farming related. PG&E will offer the programs and rates to both outdoor and indoor growers, but it will not apply to individual residential customers who can also legally grow the plant. With cannabis now fully legal in the state, California regulators are wary they may face a wave of new energy demand they are not fully prepared to meet, meaning energy efficiency programs could be critical for both grid reliability and the profits of farmers who must contend with high rates and demand charges. We've reported on this before as something that was happening in Colorado. It's always important that we think holistically about energy use. Energy is about everything we do. It's not just about turning the lights on in our house. At the nexus of food and water and agriculture and a lot of other topics. So we talk about a new industry. Marijuana growth is extremely energy intensive. So I think it's really smart that PG&E is preparing for that demand and is looking to see how they can provide rate structures and energy efficiency programs to help growers manage their bill and help manage demand, which is of course what any utility spends most of its time preoccupied with. So interesting news here, of course, we may be growing more marijuana. And again this PG&E territory, it did not apply to residences. It was really agricultural development. So this could be a smart approach that we can think ahead and get some of the stuff in the pipeline if we think that it's going to be an issue here as well. And more about energy planning. And I like to talk a bit about energy planning because states all over the country are thinking about how to plan for renewable energy and how to accurately price renewable energy. And I think it's important to keep an eye on some of those conversations that are happening elsewhere. So stakeholders in Pennsylvania are gearing up to plan for solar energy. So they kicked off last week a 30-month planning process aimed at bringing more solar energy onto the state's grid. So participants in the Finding Pennsylvania Solar Future include government officials, consumer advocates, utility representatives, and the solar industry. And under the initiative, solar stakeholders were explore options to increase solar-generated energy with an aspirational goal of 10%. The project was funded by a $550,000 award from the US Department of Energy Sun Shot Initiative. Under current state law, the percentage of the electricity sold in Pennsylvania that must come from solar power must be 0.5% by 2021. But the state's Department of Environmental Protection wants to be a leader in solar by 2030. So this, I think, is great and really interesting. We've talked about IRP planning on the show before. We've talked about the HECO Power Supply Improvement Planning process before. We've talked about how can we think of how to incorporate more distributed energy resources onto the grid. And I think it's interesting and kind of awesome that a grant, which is $550,000 is not peanuts, but that is relatively small in scope, can be given to a jurisdiction and really bring stakeholders together to try and work things, work things out. Sometimes extra resources can really help. So I think it brings to mind in Hawaii what type of discussions, what type of groupings do we need to have and need to continue to have to move these conversations forward, to walk these conversations forward in implementation. And there are a lot of incredible stakeholders holding conversations like the Hawaii Energy Policy Forum and others. And so I think it's worth thinking about how can folks come together to work with the utility and the commission and others to really let's start getting some success in how we think about this stuff. So moving ahead, it's a fun story about what corporations are doing to go to clean energy. Amazon is working to go solar, as reported by CNBC. Amazon is to install solar panels at its warehouses and distribution centers around the world. So in an announcement on Thursday, the online retail giant said it was planning to install large-scale solar systems on the rooftops of over 15 fulfillment and sortation centers across the United States. The initial projects, set to be completed by the end of this year, will produce as much as 41 megawatts of power at facilities in California, New Jersey, Maryland, Nevada, and Delaware, Amazon said. Further afield, Amazon said it was planning to deploy solar systems at 50 of its facilities globally by 2020. So this, I think, is, it's always exciting. There are just a number of things I think that are worth checking in on here, and I think that more and more with the millennials and the lead, and I think that Gen X and Y and the baby boomers, we need to embrace this trend. We want to see companies reflect the values that we have, and I think that many of us have a value to want to figure out how can we move away from fossil fuel. So I think that it's great when corporations decide to take the lead. Now, of course, they don't do this as just out of the goodness of their heart. More and more clean energy makes sense. It makes sense to go ahead and use and implement. So I just think it's exciting. You know, I know we use Amazon in and out just as much as anybody, if not more than anybody. I think it's fun to think that as I'm ordering that item and looking for that Amazon Prime check that it's being sorted and packaged and sent out at a facility that is powered by renewable energy. So I wanted to talk a little bit about new business models. I don't think I've got time to go through the entire piece. But Con Edison in New York has an interesting pilot that is a new sort of storage business model. And I think the point here really is that consultants like myself and academics, I guess, also like myself, have been seeing for a while that basically everybody gets the story. And that's what's cool. I feel like folks in Hawaii are so educated as consumers and they get it. You know, the energy prices are high and folks want solar because they want to be able to bring those costs down. And they also understand that if they go solar, that could cause some potential heartburn for the utility. And so that is a dynamic that has been in play for a very long time. And what folks are saying more and more is, okay, we need to have, you know, if somebody wants to have a renewable energy system on their own house, we need to figure out how that private investment is going to be a part of the broader picture. We can't just tell people they're not allowed to do that. I don't think that sounds fair to anybody. At the same time, we do want the utility to continue to manage the system for everyone. And we do want the utility to also be thinking about, you know, what are some of the better large scale clean energy projects they can use that may be able to lower costs and get more clean energy to more folks on the island and also increase our energy security. So you can imagine that there is a balance there. And that's where that sentence came where they talked about folks trying to think about, well, how can we have the utility move from being an entity that just gets money by selling power to an entity that gets money from doing a host of other things? Like potentially, you know, for increasing reliability could be one thing, you know, increasing access to renewable energy for customers could potentially be something that the utility could get a bonus for. And then even more in depth are ideas of how can the utility and others leverage technology like energy storage to actually provide new energy income streams. And that I think is what is happening in New York under the forming energy vision process. We won't have time to talk about that pilot today. Maybe we'll get to talk about it next week. I'm sure there'll be some more developments. Thank you so much for joining me at PowerUp Hawaii. Aloha and Mahalo.