What are non-wires alternatives?

by Hawaii Powered | May 31, 2022

Solar panels on a resident rooftop

What are non-wires alternatives and how do they benefit customers?

Typically, moving electricity involves a complicated network of poles, wires and substations. New energy technologies are providing additional options. That’s where non-wires alternatives (NWAs) come in. NWAs provide the ability to connect diverse energy sources to the grid to reduce or defer the need for transmission infrastructure like wires, substations and transformers. They support distributed energy resources, which diversify the types of energy generation to include small-scale sources (like community-based renewables, rooftop solar and customer battery storage) and grid-scale sources (like wind turbines and larger solar facilities).

Community members, engineers, environmental scientists, utility companies and regulators have been working to develop and implement NWAs to make smaller-scale connections. For example, an NWA system could directly connect electricity from an aggregation of rooftop solar panels and customer battery storage, energy efficiency, and larger scale resources back to the grid.

Benefits of NWAs for customers include:

Expression of Interest for NWAs on Oahu

On April 1, 2022, Hawaiian Electric published an Expressions of Interest for NWAs on Oahu. Expressions of Interest are part of the competitive bidding process for selecting developers to build projects. An Expression of Interest comes before a Request for Proposal, and it is an opportunity to ask the developer community for feedback and to learn more about different technologies for potential projects. It can also demonstrate a company’s intention to invest in a particular service, describe the need for that service and identify interested parties.

Hawaiian Electric is planning to retire two oil-powered generation units, Waiau 3 and 4, in the coming years. We are interested in looking for an NWA solution to ensure the reliability of the grid. If an NWA is not feasible in this situation, we have identified a traditional wires solution. This would involve recirculating, reconfiguring and adding a new transformer at the Ewa Nui Substations. This option was determined based on the forecasted electricity needs of Oahu in 2026–2029. An NWA would potentially bridge the gap from the need now to the potential wires solution in the future.

You can learn more and read the Expression of Interest online.

Learn more about Hawaii Powered and our clean energy future at www.hawaiipowered.com.

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Established in 1891, Hawaiian Electric is committed to empowering its customers and communities by providing affordable, reliable, clean and sustainable energy.

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Hawaiian Electric

Established in 1891, Hawaiian Electric is committed to empowering its customers and communities by providing affordable, reliable, clean and sustainable energy.