Hawaii Electric Vehicle Network Initiative
PROBLEM Electric vehicles present a large new load for the utility but also a potential energy management asset.
PROJECT Better Place is installing infrastructure for 9 electric vehicle charging stations and will use 7 electric vehicles to provide the first demonstration of integrated vehicle-to-grid technology on Oahu.
AWARD $1,106,877 (HREDV 45%, private 55%)
LOCATION Waikiki, Oahu
Read the Better Place final report summary for the HREDV project, which was concluded in November 2011.
PARTNERS
- Kyo-ya, owner of the Sheraton branded properties in Hawaii
- Hawaiian Electric Company
- Hawaii Center for Advanced Transportation Technologies
- Hawaii Natural Energy Institute
SUMMARY
The arrival of mass market, highway capable electric vehicles (EVs) represents numerous benefits to Hawaii’s energy landscape, including reduced reliance on fossil fuels, economic growth through clean-tech industry leadership, and distributed battery storage to enable the state’s ambitious clean energy goal of 70% by 2030. It also presents challenges: the risk of distribution circuit overload, increased generation requirements during peak demand periods, and the risk of high circuit frequency variation from uncontrolled high recharge demand.
Better Place is developing and deploying EV driver services, systems and infrastructure to directly address these problems. Direct control of vehicle charging, informed by real time grid capacity and performance characteristics, will enable Hawaii to capture the potential benefits of EVs, while reducing the aforementioned risks and costs.
The HCEI and State/HECO agreement indicate that intermittent sources of renewable energy will play a major role in meeting the 70% RE mandate by 2030. To accommodate such significant renewable energy penetration, intermittence must be managed by effective use of electricity storage. Industrial-grade storage is expensive, can have relatively low asset utilization, and has distinct lifetime limits, all reducing incentives for investment in RE generation. EVs serve as a distributed energy storage mechanism, reducing investment risks and enabling more intermittently generated renewable energy to come online.
Overall, EV networks and services can play a catalyzing role in Hawaii’s transition to a clean energy economy, making this market a great opportunity for Better Place to conduct a pre-commercial EV network demonstration.
There are four key objectives for the twelve-month duration of this project:
- Develop expertise in Hawaii for planning and deploying EV network infrastructure as a means to accelerate the implementation of a fully scaled solution.
- Demonstrate tangible progress in Hawaii that will drive further transportation electrification projects and commercialization.
- Conduct pre-commercial testing and validation of the integration of smart EV network infrastructure with utilities.
- Collect and analyze data of vehicle operation, battery operation, and user behavior (e.g., driving and charging patterns), which will be used to help optimize the EV network infrastructure for future, commercial build out.
This pre-commercial demonstration will include Better Place EV network and services, converted plug-in hybrid EVs, charging infrastructure sites with dedicated EV parking and a mix of users/drivers from corporate fleets to resort guests along with data acquisition, analysis and reporting.