How the Hawaiian Power Grid Works

⚡A few of the complexities involved in managing a mini power grid.

Drawing the line between what’s worth the investment and what’s just gilding the electric lily is tough on such a small scale, multiplied by several islands, and with such a quickly growing portfolio of renewable energy sources.

Practical Engineering is a YouTube channel about infrastructure and the human-made world around us. It is hosted, written, and produced by Grady Hillhouse. We have new videos posted regularly, so please subscribe for updates. If you enjoyed the video, hit that ‘like’ button, give us a comment, or watch another of our videos!

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DISCLAIMER
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This is not engineering advice. Everything here is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Contact an engineer licensed to practice in your area if you need professional advice or services. All non-licensed clips used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes.

SPECIAL THANKS
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This video is sponsored by Ground News.
Stock video and imagery provided by Getty Images, Shutterstock, Pond5, and Videoblocks.
Tonic and Energy by Elexive is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
Video by Grady Hillhouse
Edited by Wesley Crump
Produced by Ralph Crewe
Graphics by Nebula Studios

[avenger]

I can honestly say this is the first time I've ever stopped and considered how Hawaii generates enough power when it is all by itself. Thanks for the thought-provoking video this morning

[mxp]

As a resident on Oahu I appreciate your video. I remember the bad weather you were mentioning, luckily rolling blackouts didn't affect us in Ewa Beach. Our home solar system was able to charge up to 50% during this time. For the past 2 months February and March we've been 100% off grid thanks to great weather.

[fishbaitx]

0:55 for those wondering the building at the top of those stairs is the ha'iku radio station historically before it was retired from that use it was used by the us navy to send signals to navy ships operating all over the pacific

[Ponbcd]

As a Native Hawaiian on the island of Maui, I love this video and always wondered about our grid when I saw your video about the United States grid. Saying how the U.S. can pull power from across the continent. Also, that was a smooth transition to the AD.

[monophoto]

Excellent video! Retired power engineer here - worked on a study for the US DOE back in the early 80's that highlighted most of the same points you mention. While it might seem that the industry has been dragging its feet on addressing the problems, the fact is that solutions rely on technology that simply didn't exist and that had to be developed, and that takes time. And there's more to be done - which is why power engineering may seem to be boring and mundane, but in fact is one of the most dynamic fields to be in.

And by the way - the situation is Texas is actually quite similar to Hawaii - slightly larger in scale, but still an isolated grid with some of the same issues.

[shakehandswithdanger]

I did some design work on a simple cycle combustion turbine generator install near Kapolei about 15 years ago. Besides the high wind, high seismic, and unfriendly volcanic geology and a high salty water table, there were other atypical costs. It had to be a 'black start' unit, so it had its own batteries and diesel generators to fire up the CTG w/o off-site power, not cheap. Additionally, the unit was credited for providing power to emergency facilities, hospitals, fire stations, etc. therefore increasing its IBC importance category from the normal III to IV, a considerable expense and an increase to the design loads.

Lastly, shout out to Palo Verde generating station at 5:05. My favorite plant and an absolute beast.

Nice video.

[theinfernalcraftsman]

I grew up on Oahu and one thing we used very little of was electricity. No AC or heat didn't need much lighting, Washer and dryer were outside and often didn't use the dryer. I'm glad you brought up all the issues with piling solar onto a small grid as there are many complaining about no longer being able to put power back on the grid now. It's a much more complicated issue than it looks on the surface. Also looking forward to your next video. There is a big difference between a rotating mass making electricity and a digital inverter and then a transformer based inverter as well.
But I did see on google street view that the house we lived in went from a flat tar and gravel roof to a conventional pitched roof with solar panels and it looks like they have replaced the jalousie windows with regular windows and added air conditioning. My only complaint about living there was the constant ear infections from not having a dry place to sleep at night so AC is a very good thing.

[Ukie]

You have an excellent speaking style..not hyper nor monotone. Very pleasant to listen to. Of course your content is most engaging and informative.🇨🇦

[alcasey]

Nice summation Grady, thank you. I managed the North Island Control Centre for New Zealand in the mid 90s. You pointed out frequency variation - we had a normal operating frequency range of 49.8 to 50.2Hz, as compared to an interconnected continental system as in Europe that would operate at 49.98 to 50.02Hz, quite a significantly more stable frequency. What you didn't mention was the impact of voltage spikes. We used capacitors to boost the voltage in the main demand centre of Auckland. But switching the capacitors in and out with the wrong grid conditions would impose voltage spikes on the grid, that more than once tripped off the oil refinery in the north of the North Island. My point here is that the variability of both frequency and voltage on very small island power systems presents problems for control electronics designed for large stable interconnected systems. Something to remember when deciding on the build of a refinery!

[tomdchi]

Fantastic! This is the first time I've heard anyone outside of power systems electrical engineers bring up inertia on the grid! Part of the value of building out pumped hydro storage is increasing the spinning mass connected to the grid to stabilize frequency. It's great that someone is finally discussing these more complex issues!

[jenbanim]

Technology Connections was the first channel I saw to bring up the difficulties of distributed electricity generation. I'd definitely be interested in a video that goes into this in more detail

[bananaman]

Engineer from Hawaii here. Thank you so much for doing this video and keeping it well-informed within our context! So many of our problems arise from our unique geography and isolation, and many of them are really engineering problems. You've made my day here. Will be sharing it with local people who ask me questions about this kinda stuff. Mahalo!

Oh, side note for future reference, since you brought up your efforts to being correct and respectful (thank you so much!). The word "Hawaiian" is used for Hawaiian "Kanaka Maoli" ethnic people, not residents of the State. State residents are simply "locals". I know, it's a little confusing, but it's sorta like calling all people living in Japan "Japanese" even if they are not ethnically Japanese; the term is reserved for ethnicity, not residency.

[ntamsma]

As a big fan of this channel, construction attorney, from San Antonio but temporarily in Hawaii, this is exactly what I was hoping for.

[alexanderose]

I would love to see a similar video on Puerto Rico! The grid there has been so unreliable that many are switching over to private microgrids. As battery storage prices drop, these types of installations start to make more sense.

[mvadu]

That rotating physical mass's inertia stabilizing the frequency was a very informative.

[ColdWindPhoenix]

When I went through training for solar I was told that the Hawaii grid operators had rules put in place to require specific tolerance settings on "dumb" inverters. This allowed the grid operators to control large sections of distributed production by playing with the frequency in small changes, but enough to take the frequency outside of the setpoints on those inverters. Which had the effect of allowing the grid operators to balance the load with production from solar and fuel fired sources even without direct communication with those "dumb" inverters.

[russmiller]

As a retired power engineer this is an excellent review of the power system, generation and system control.

[Fractal-]

There are a few power plants in Hawaii that are running off locally produced biodiesel. Pac Bio grows sunflowers to make oil, sells the oil to restaurants, gets paid to collect the used oil, then makes biodiesel. IMHO this is the route Hawaiian Electric should go vs importing its fuel. Thanks for the very informative video!

[professorskye]

“Reliability comes from redundancy“ is powerfully meaningful and poetic.

[Muppetkeeper]

In the UK it is common for power inertia to be added into the grid, either via especially built projects that basically spin large weights to keep inertia in the system, or by converting generation plant into "large spinny things" when the power station is decommissioned. It seem that there is an opportunity to do that on Hawi'i