The Oahu Wind Integration Study performed by the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) at the University of Hawaii in Manoa in association with General Electric (GE) and Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO), has found that the energy generated by the wind farms and solar energy can meet nearly 25% power requirement of Ohau, the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands.
The OWAIS studied the impact on the Oahu grid with 500 MW of wind energy and 100 MW of solar power and found that such clean energy supply could avoid the need of burning around 2.8 million barrels of low sulfur fuel oil (LSFO) and around 132,000 tons of coal every year to maintain the power supply. The study has made a number of recommendations such as introduction of a latest wind energy forecasting facility to predict the amount of wind energy available, augmenting the power reserves such as generators to overcome the uncertainty in wind power generation, lessening the number of minimum stable operating power of base load generating units to increase the power reserve, boosting the ramp rates (the time required to increase or decrease output) of electric thermal power units of Hawaii, introducing the right type of weather monitoring facilities to boost wind power generation during the period of variable wind power and finally appraising of other resources that are competent to provide reserve power.
The study suggests for further researches to assure reliability. It suggests upgrading of the present and the proposed new infrastructure besides meeting the exclusive requirements of the wind farms that are to be linked to the Oahu system. The technical study proposes that Oahu can hold more number of solar and wind power generating projects with reduced restrictions on the power output.