Energy in Hawaii and Software Engineering

Introduction
Hawaii is a unique place with its own unique set of problems.  This is especially true when it comes to the issue of electrical energy in terms of both generation and consumption.  So why would this be covered in a software engineering log?  Of course, this is an important issue for the residents of Hawaii to consider, but it is also producing some new and interesting software development opportunities.  Thus, let's take a look at some of the unique issues of Hawaii's energy situation and some of the efforts that are being taken to alleviate them.

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Electrical Energy vs. Power
Before we begin, what is electrical energy?  Well, obviously we know that electricity is the thing that comes out of our outlets, but how do we measure it?  It turns out that there are actually two ways to measure electricity: energy and power.  Energy is the thing that makes our appliances run and makes electricity useful.  This is usually measured in kilowatt hours.  But why are our electrical appliances rated according to wattage?  These are actually ratings of power which tells us the rate at which these appliances consume electrical energy.  Consequently, the energy used is a factor of both the power being drawn by the appliance and the time it is running (energy = power * time) and the power is the rate at which the energy is being converted (power = energy / time).  Hence, these two related concepts are much more different than they appear to be at first glance.  For more information and a different explanation, please consult this video.

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Issues
Now that we understand energy, what are the issues concerning electrical energy in Hawaii?  Of course, this energy must be generated in some fashion by the electric company and these are typically generated by using non-renewable resources.  While mainland power plants can use these resources, they often opt to use cheaper local resources when they are available.  However, due to Hawaii's unique location and available local resources most of its power generation comes from expensive imported oil and coal making energy costs much higher than on the mainland.  In addition, the mainland states make use of a single massive power grid to spread the workload and increase its efficiency.  On the other hand, Hawaii's geography prevents the creation of a single statewide grid, resulting in the use multiple much smaller and less efficient power stations to supply each island.  Therefore, Hawaii has a rather unique position on the energy front in comparison to other mainland states.

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Efforts
With all of these problems, there must be a solution right?  Well look no further as the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative (HCEI) has laid down what needs to be done to alleviate the aforementioned issues.  The HCEI aims to decrease energy usage by 30% while increasing clean energy generation by 40%.  This would lead to an astounding 70% increase in clean energy and be a huge step in improving Hawaii's energy future.  To do this, residents must increase their energy efficiency by following less wasteful energy usage practices such as keeping your refrigerator in a cool location or replacing your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs or Light-Emitting Diodes.  In addition, more energy would be generated through clean and renewable means such as using solar power or using wind turbines to capture the energy of the ever present wind.  As a result, both more efficient energy usage and the incorporation of local renewable energy resources are needed to help solve Hawaii's energy problems.

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Software Engineering Opportunities
So where does software engineering fit into all of this?  For one, researchers will need to collect and analyze a lot of data to quantify the effectiveness of their energy efficiency efforts and they will need software tools to perform these tasks.  Consequently, they will need software engineers with energy knowledge to design and create these tools.  Furthermore, incorporating renewable energy resources will require smarter power grid technology.  These new sources must be added and removed intelligently as just throwing more energy into the grid would be wasteful as the non-renewable generators would still be going at normal capacity.   Conversely, removing too many of those generators would cause the entire grid to become overloaded and fail.  As a result, software will be needed to track both power generation and consumption to help incorporate these new energy sources safely and effectively.

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Conclusion
Overall, Hawaii is a unique place with its own unique set of energy problems.  To solve these issues, Hawaii must both attempt to improve its energy efficiency and work on tapping the many local renewable resources.  However, both of these tasks will require the aid of software tools, providing software engineers with many research opportunities.  Hopefully you have gained a better understanding of Hawaii's current energy situation and can see how this seemingly unrelated field can be beneficial to the local software engineers.  So save energy and keep green.  Perhaps a software engineering opportunity might manifest itself as a result!