Two engineers from Hawaiian Electric have received prestigious Technology Transfer Awards from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) for their collaborative research and development projects.
The local awardees are:
Randy China, Customer Solutions Engineering senior power quality manager, was honored for implementation of tools for advanced power quality monitoring and analysis. Several utilities worked with EPRI to develop an Open Power Quality Dashboard software tool. Hawaiian Electric demonstrated a more efficient process to manage large trend data sets and analytical processing using the dashboard. This can ultimately lead to consistent delivery of higher quality electric power, especially important for institutional and industrial customers using sensitive high-tech electrical equipment.
Yoh Kawanami, Customer Energy Resources co-director, was honored for advance flexible demand response implementation. Hawaiian Electric and other utilities applied the new methods to valuate customer load management to demonstrate the capabilities and value of several types of heaters in support of integrating more renewable energy.
The two were among those honored at EPRI meetings in Dallas, Texas.
EPRI’s annual Technology Transfer Awards recognize industry innovators who help companies transform research into results that can improve efficiency of power plants, harden transmission and distribution grids, improve cybersecurity, and enhance electrification – all for the end-benefit of utility customers.
“The 2019 Technology Transfer Award recipients lead by example, elevating the societal value of EPRI’s collaborative R&D by deploying advanced energy technologies across the power industry,” said EPRI President Arshad Mansoor. “Their contributions are essential to transforming electricity generation, delivery, and use for the benefit of energy customers around the world.”
About EPRI
The Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (www.epri.com) conducts research and development relating to the generation, delivery and use of electricity for the benefit of the public. An independent, nonprofit organization, EPRI brings together its scientists, engineers and experts from academia and industry to help address challenges in electricity, including reliability, efficiency, affordability, health, safety and the environment. EPRI members represent approximately 90 percent of the electricity generated and delivered in the United States, and international participation extends to nearly 40 countries.