Greenlots and Hawaiian Electric Company are working to show how an electric vehicle (EV) fast charger combined with energy storage can support EV initiatives on the road to a clean energy future for Hawaii.
Greenlots has implemented its pioneering SKY platform — a scalable, vehicle-grid integration (VGI) technology — in an EV fast charger owned and operated by Hawaiian Electric Company as part of a joint research, development and demonstration project with the Electric Power Research Institute.
The innovative fast charger is located at Kapolei Commons, a popular shopping mall in West Oahu. By giving residents and visitors in the area a convenient place to quickly charge their EVs with minimal impact on the Oahu grid, the goal is to encourage EV adoption.
The fast charger's integrated energy storage allows it to remain in full power using electricity stored at times when generation is abundant, such as mid-day when many rooftop solar panels are sending power to the grid. Stored energy is then available later in the day during peak use times when electricity is in high demand.
The fast charger allows electric vehicle owners to get up to an 80 percent charge in as little as 30 minutes. Drivers can easily locate the fast-charge stations and charge using the Greenlots mobile app and pay for a charge through the app or by using a credit card, much as at a self-service gasoline pump.
"With our state's 100% renewable portfolio goals, we are working to support the build out of electric vehicle charging infrastructure to provide EV drivers with range confidence," said Jim Alberts, Hawaiian Electric senior vice president for customer service.
"We're pleased to be working with Greenlots on this battery-backed fast charging initiative, because in conjunction with VLI-EV Partners, Greenlots helped provide a demand-side management system to meet our evolving power grid needs. An advantage of the Greenlots open standards system is that it can be used with a variety of fast chargers built by different companies."
A similar fast charger system will also be used when Hawaiian Electric opens its fifth utility-owned fast charger at its Ward Avenue facility next month. By harmonizing electric vehicles with the grid, Greenlots has created a flexible grid management platform to meet the specific electricity demand needs of Hawaiian Electric and electric vehicle drivers alike.
In leveraging the industry's leading open standards for demand response and price communications, OpenADR and the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP), the Greenlots SKY Smart Charging™ platform can respond to demand response load modification requests and allow HECO to remotely control grid loads through demand response actions.
"Increasingly, utilities are looking toward open standards-based charging to be utilized in energy management strategies," said Brett Hauser, CEO of Greenlots. "We are particularly excited about this storage-backed fast charge initiative with Hawaiian Electric, because we see vast opportunities to support electric vehicle mobility while also managing energy loads more reliably as the industry expands."