Ka`u News Briefs Monday, Jan. 5, 2015

A WATER RESTRICTION ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT for Wai`ohinu area customers, according to Kanani Aton, of the county Department of Water Supply. Due to a main break on South Point Road and reduced source water output, customers in Wai`ohinu mauka, Discovery Harbour mauka and along South Point Road have no water service.

      Until further notice, Wai`ohinu area customers are advised to restrict water use to essential needs only.

• Keep water use to an absolute minimum. 
• Water should be used for essentials only (cooking, drinking and sanitation). 
• Do not wash cars or water lawns. 
• Turn off or disconnect any devices or fixtures that regularly draw water. Such devices include automatic icemakers and irrigation systems. 

      An emergency water spigot is available at Wai`ohinu Park for customers while main repairs are completed.
      For any emergency water concerns, call 961-8790.

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HAWAI`I’S DRY SEASON LAST YEAR was the wettest in the last 30 years despite late August and early September dryness, according to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. Most of the state had near to above average rainfall

 from May through September, and the Big Island had near to above average at most locations.

      NOAA said this is one of the rare cases in recent years where the state is in relatively good shape in an El Nino wet season, which usually allows some heavy rain events to impact the state.

      El Nino is projected to be weak.

 Probabilities favor below average rainfall through spring but not as dry as 2009 – 2010 and 1997 – 1998.

      Some drought development expected early this year and will mainly affect the agriculture sector and those with catchment systems.

      For more information, see www.weather.gov/hawaii, www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov and droughtmonitor.unl.edu.

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HAWAI`I IS MOVING FROM THE CENTRALIZED utility model of electricity generation toward the decentralized micro-grid and building-grid paradigms, according to Life of the Land director Henry Curtis. However, “large centralized utilities like NextEra are attempting to create a backlash, to return to the glory days of centralized power,” Curtis says on his blog at ililanimedia.blogspot.com. NextEra is the mainland company that is purchasing Hawaiian Electric and its subsidiaries.

      Curtis describes various future energy scenarios. One he calls the “Utility Knows Best Scenario,” in which some utility consultants assert that upgrading the entire system into one massively complex creature will lower costs, increase reliability and make customers safer. Curtis likens these schemes with names such as Smart Meters, Smart Grids, Grid Modernization, Grid Intelligence, Advanced Metering Infrastructure and Distribution Automation to the National Security Agency. The utilities would develop computer, telecommunication and surveillance technology “so they can receive messages from and send controlling messages back to every single electric device connected anywhere and everywhere on the electric grid at the transmission, distribution and household level.”

Cattle graze among downed eucalyptus trees along the cane haul road between Pahala and Na`alehu yesterday after the windstorm. Photo by Julia Neal

      Another paradigm is “Innovators Know Best.” According to Curtis, “it makes more sense to have entrepreneurs, innovators and venture capitalists develop small smart micro-grids. These can be net metered to the utility transmission spine. The micro-grids cannot only export and import to the utility grid, but they can also supply voltage and frequency support. In Hawai`i micro-grids are being planned by the military and Parker Ranch.
      Building-based smart grids is the third, and to Curtis, most logical, paradigm.

      “Global solar installations have grown at over 40 percent per year for over a dozen years,” Curtis states. “This rapid deployment is leading to massive innovation and sharply lower prices. The battery revolution is now being launched. Each year it is and will continue to become cheaper and cheaper to install solar and batteries. Tesla is building a massive battery factory. Technology currently exists to interlink the power in buildings and batteries in vehicles.
      “On the Neighbor Islands it is cheaper to rely on solar and batteries than to remain attached to the grid. Many people don’t take the chance. But what happens in five or ten years when the prices off solar and batteries have dropped by 70 percent and Costco offers standardized ‘utility-in-a-box’ packages that homeowners can install without middlemen? The traditional utility will cease to exist.
      “Sides of buildings and window panes will be coated with thin micro-scale and nano-scale solar energy devices. Utilities will be relegated to the same realm occupied by faxes, microfiche and land-lines,” Curtis concludes.

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WALK INTO THE PAST tomorrow at 10 a.m., 12 p.m. and 2 p.m., beginning at Kīlauea Visitor Center and entering the Whitney Vault in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Ka`u resident Dick Hershberger brings Hawaiian Volcano Observatory founder Thomas Jaggar to life every other Tuesday.

AFTER DARK IN THE PARK offers updates on Kilauea’s two eruptions at 7 p.m. tomorrow at Kilauea Visitor Center Auditorium in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologist Matt Patrick talks about Halema`uma`u lava lake and presents a brief overview on the first 30 years of Pu`u `O`o’s eruption and the lava flow that has advanced toward Pahoa over the past six months. Free; park entrance fees apply.

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS AT PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM. KA`U COFFEE MILL IS OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.