So, those of us of a certain age will remember when weather, power plants and issues caused us to have to reduce our power useage. Perhaps it was when a power generator went off line or excessive air conditioning was needed. We were asked to shift our useage from day time until after 5pm when industry shut down for the day. We would hold off using the dryer and ovens to lighten the grid.
Well, that was then and this is now.
My electric company has installed smart meters which keep track of energy usage and report to the electric company our useag based upon time of day.
So what has changed? They now have the most costly tier of electraic rates for useage in the middle of the night. When is the best time for us to use electric? Daytime!
This is done they say, because the sun is out! We here are switching more to solar and wind (which also seems higher during the day). Any way to get us weaned off oil is useful. It is not unusual for LED bulbs to be very cheap with the majority of the cost borne by the electric company. We cannot import power from ‘the grid’ because we have no other state to get it from. We even have issues supplying power to other counties (each county is essentuall another island). Stretching power lines between neighbor island is near impossible as the ocean floor is quite deep here and we have massive ocean currents.
Up county here they have added a very large solar plant with 94,000 panels.
Waikoloa Solar + Storage can generate up to 30 megawatts and is supported by a 120 megawatt-hour battery storage system. The energy produced is expected to power nearly 14,000 homes, said Sandra Larsen, AES Hawaii market business leader.
The solar farm is the Big Island’s first and largest solar plus storage project. It’s located on 300 acres on Waikoloa Road. With the Waikoloa project online, Hawaii is now producing 54% of its energy from renewable sources, according to the utility.
