There are nearly 100 island communities in the United States and its territories. Many more U.S. communities are "islanded," meaning their connection to a centralized electric grid is nonexistent or tenuous because they are remote, rural, or both. Contact online >>
There are nearly 100 island communities in the United States and its territories. Many more U.S. communities are "islanded," meaning their connection to a centralized electric grid is nonexistent or tenuous because they are remote, rural, or both.
As a result, these communities—vastly different in terms of size, geography, climate, culture, and economy—all face significant energy and infrastructure challenges. Although the challenges vary widely, they all create similar risks and vulnerabilities for the people who call these places home.
Through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project (ETIPP), local leaders, community-based organizations, and residents in 23 remote and island communities are addressing their local energy resilience challenges.
ETIPP connects these competitively selected communities with a network of regional and national energy experts—including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)—who can identify optimal energy and infrastructure solutions that meet local needs and goals.
Funded by DOE''s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, ETIPP provides answers to community questions about increasing energy resilience, with a range of resources and technologies, such as water, solar, wind, and geothermal power; microgrids; rate structures; energy efficiency and storage; and electric transportation.
The first 11 communities selected in April 2021 began working with the ETIPP partner network last fall to navigate their options for transitioning to clean, resilient energy systems. Roughly midway into their ETIPP journeys, these pioneers are making headway, as divergent as their paths may be.
Take Oahu, Hawaii, and Ouzinkie, Alaska. As islands go, they could not be more different. Yet both are confronting energy and infrastructure challenges that place their communities at significant risk. And despite the obstacles presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, each island is charting its own course to a clean and resilient energy future, relying on local knowledge, skills, and insights while leveraging expert energy analysis.
Along with the economic stressors stemming from extreme dependence on imported fuel, Oahu residents face outsized threats associated with severe weather events, which have the potential to cause long-duration power outages. Restoring power can take weeks or months due to the location of isolated electrical infrastructure and shipment times required for fuel and materials.
Hawaii has identified hybrid microgrids as one potential pathway to mitigate these risks and vulnerabilities. In 2021, the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission approved an initial microgrid services tariff (MST), which clears the way for hybrid microgrid development as a means of improving the resilience of electricity customers served by these systems.
Through ETIPP, Hawaiian Electric (HE) is partnering with NREL, Sandia National Laboratories, and the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute to create a map identifying potential locations for hybrid microgrids under 3 megawatts based on a set of criteria prioritized by stakeholders.
Like the Ancient Polynesian voyagers whose wayfinding skills led them to the Hawaiian Islands, ETIPP''s local and national partners are navigating uncharted waters as they pull together in pursuit of a more resilient Oahu. The resulting map may help guide developers to areas for further microgrid analysis and development based on the defined criteria, potentially increasing awareness and streamlining the development process.
Hybrid microgrids combine utility- and customer-owned infrastructure to supply electricity to microgrid members during emergencies. Hybrid microgrids complement more traditional customer-only or utility-only microgrids.
Raising awareness is a key goal for Ken Aramaki, HE''s director of transmission & distribution and interconnection planning. HE identified the map as a way to boost interest in the Public Utilities Commission-approved MST they developed. "We have yet to receive a formal application in this process," Aramaki said, "which tells us tools like the map are needed to help customers understand where hybrid microgrids may be suitable for development."
"I hope the community will see that we are trying to do things that ultimately help them find solutions or have choices," said Aramaki, who has firsthand experience with how long-duration power outages affect families.
He was attending second grade on Kauai when Hurricane Iniki hit the island in September 1992. "I remember electricity being out for months in certain areas of the island," he said. Along with missing school, he remembers his parents going to great lengths to adapt to the lack of basic infrastructure.
"Among other stresses like cleaning up and finding ways to cook food, they had to go get water somewhere else and boil it just so we (the kids) could have some semi-warm water to rinse ourselves," he recalled, "Now that I work at Hawaiian Electric, these experiences are always on my mind because the fact that we are located in the middle of the ocean won''t change, and getting critical equipment here will continue to be a challenge."
Some 2,500 nautical miles to the north—in Ouzinkie, Alaska—the man in charge of keeping the lights on in his village knows exactly how Aramaki feels. Mayor Elijah Jackson has been working to repair Ouzinkie''s hydropower plant since it stalled in 2019, leaving the community 100% reliant on costly imported diesel fuel.
The Native Village of Ouzinkie derives its name from the Russian phrase uzen kii, or "rather narrow." That describes the 12-mile strait that separates the six-square-mile sliver of land on Spruce Island from the city of Kodiak on southern Alaska''s Kodiak Island.
It also describes the economic margin Mayor Jackson is working within to keep electricity affordable for community members. "Right now, we''re spending $21,000 a month on fuel, and we''re a tiny community [of] 130," he said. "I''m almost being forced to raise the rates, and I don''t want to do that. It''s getting too expensive for the people that are from here to live here anymore."
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