Hawaii’s largest utility company, Hawaiian Electric Cos., (HECO) has recently received the state regulator – PUC’s (Hawaii Public Utilities Commission) nod for its grid modernization plan. Reportedly, the company faced several rejections of its previous iterations of plans on the grounds of a rather exorbitant budget and technological gap that did not match the state’s ambitious target.
The latest reports state that the revised plan now comprises the installation of an advanced metering equipment. For the record, the utility’s plan constitutes expanded use of voltage management tools and advanced inverter technology that would allow users to control customer equipment through wireless networks and advanced energy metering.
According to the Utility Dive, the grid modernization plan is restructured to focus not only on near-term improvements to provide instantaneous customer benefits but also on developing a robust grid network for an all-renewables-future, which is a part of the state’s initiative to deploy 100% renewables by the year 2045.
Industry experts familiar with the ongoing issue speculate that with the approval of the state regulators to this plan, there is also a lot of leeway for instrument transformer industry players to seize massive proceeds from the rise in product demand. The modernization plan is poised to uplift the regional instrument transformer market size, now slated to thrive on the cusp of the utility’s roadmap for developing more resilient & renewable-ready grids across the region, say experts. Further speculation states that effective monitoring and protection mechanism will be a major reason behind the extensive installation of advanced transformers, which in turn will drive instrument transformer industry size.
Meanwhile, amidst the grid modernization project, the PUC has also approved two other rooftop solar programs for HECO, namely, Grid Supply-Plus and Smart Export.
It has been reported that the total estimated cost of grid modernization plan would exceed USD 205 million.