Hawaiian Electric Co. (HECO) has big plans for energy storage, but is wary of moving too quickly. The utility is looking for better storage technology and economics before moving too much on deployment.
The island state is often considered a test case or laboratory for the integration of renewable energy. With a 100% renewable portfolio standard in Hawaii and a 2045 target date, the state’s main utility is quite focused on what its generation mix is going to be and how it is going to get there.
The utility is expecting 2,700 MW of energy storage on Oahu by 2030, said Colton Ching, senior vice president for planning and technology at HECO. That includes both customer sited, behind-the-meter batteries and utility-scale energy storage installations, either owned by the utility or competitively bid to a third party. But HECO has been slow to embrace energy storage, despite the rapid influx of solar power in the state.
Hawaii has the highest solar penetration of any state. There are already 80,000 rooftops with solar panels and HECO expects that number to double by 2030. But so far, the utility has only 3 MW of utility-scale storage projects, and all three of those were pilot projects.
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