BIG DATA

The Hawaii State Energy Office (HSEO) has been selected to receive a competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to create a data visualization tool that will help stakeholders better understand the policy choices needed to move toward a 100 percent renewable energy system.

HSEO sought the $225,000 grant under the DOE’s State Energy Program to develop the Hawaii Advanced Visualization Environment Nexus, or HAVEN, which is being undertaken in partnership with the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Laboratory for Advanced Visualization & Applications (LAVA), and the Hawaiian Electric Companies.

“HAVEN represents the kind of innovative thinking we will need to become energy independent,” said Luis P. Salaveria, director of the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism, which oversees HSEO. “Through pioneering programs and effective policies, Hawaii is a leader in clean energy innovation, which will generate quality jobs, attract investment opportunities, and diversify our economy.”

The HAVEN project will create a platform to help policymakers analyze and make informed decisions regarding Hawaii’s clean energy transformation. The HAVEN platform coordinates environmental, reliability, resiliency and economic goals using data visualization tools to clarify complex problems.

“Planning to achieve a 100 percent renewable portfolio standard is a complex and iterative process. Understanding the economic, environmental and energy security impacts of the key decision points in various planning scenarios is essential for decision makers to have a complete picture of the energy landscape proposed in each scenario,” said Mark Glick, HSEO administrator. “With the issues in the energy sector becoming increasingly complicated and impactful to customers, it is critical that stakeholders are engaged and informed on the impacts of significant decisions that must be made to transform the energy sector.”

HAVEN will foster a new level of collaboration, bringing together HSEO, HECO, LAVA, and key external stakeholders. Collaboration with LAVA provides HSEO with access to advanced computing infrastructure and state-of-the-art visualization cyber-infrastructure such as LAVA’s Cyber-enabled Collaboration Analysis Navigation and Observation Environment (CyberCANOE). HAVEN will use high-resolution visual imagery of the CyberCANOE and large-scale simulation data to visually illustrate the interrelationship of renewable energy penetration, energy efficiency measures, electricity demand and consumption, distributed energy resources (DER), demand response (DR) programs, and electricity generation in Hawaii’s complex energy ecosystem.

The collaboration with HECO offers access to HECO’s complex, integrated data sets for joint planning exercises for future utility investments toward achievement of Hawaii’s energy policy agenda.