After making a commitment in October 2014 to clear 90% of the interconnection backlog by April 2015, Hawaiian Electric sought out Enphase Energy’s technical assistance to get analysis of grid conditions in every solar customer across the island of Oahu. Approximately 25,000 Enphase® systems have been installed on the island to collect data.
The Enphase PV systems installed on Oahu represent approximately 70% of all PV system production. They able to report high-granularity voltage and frequency data, providing detailed view of events of grid instability. The two companies used this PV production data to create statistically rich “heat maps” that supported the initial technical reviews by Hawaiian Electric’s engineers. Utilizing the data-rich analysis provided by Enphase helped Hawaiian Electric meet its commitment to release approximately 4,000 PV systems, or over 20MW, of solar interconnections.
“Leveraging Enphase’s smart microinverters, and our data communications technology to clear Oahu’s interconnection queue exemplifies the innovative thinking that Hawaiian Electric is applying to accommodate higher levels of solar penetration,” said Paul Nahi, president and CEO of Enphase.
“The clearance of the Oahu interconnection queue is welcome news for the solar community and provides another example of Enphase’s technology leadership as well as the value that the company offers beyond microinverters,” said Raghu Belur, co-founder and vice president of products and strategic initiatives of Enphase. “With the backlog gone, the solar community can now get back to what it does best—installing rooftop solar and helping customers save on their energy bills.”
Earlier this year, Enphase remotely upgraded the operating behavior of approximately 25,000 systems of its software-defined microinverters installed in Hawaiian Electric’s service areas, helping to improve the stability of the overall grid. The interconnection queue clearance is the latest success story for the two companies’ partnership.
