Problem Solving: The Real Source of Power
When Brian joined the University of Hawaii’s School of Ocean Science and Technology, one of his assignments was deceptively simple: measure how power flowed through a neighborhood with high adoption of rooftop solar. What began as a technical project quickly revealed lessons about fragility, innovation, and the hidden costs of renewable energy.
The Challenge of Too Much Power
Power grids are designed around predictable consumption, not unpredictable generation. In neighborhoods with many solar-equipped homes, midday sunlight often created more power than the grid could absorb. Transformers overheated, cable systems strained, and utilities faced a costly choice: upgrade infrastructure at enormous expense or cut homes off temporarily through curtailment.
Brian’s team instrumented entire neighborhoods with power quality sensors, attaching them to transformers and inverters to track how electricity moved in real time. These measurements provided visibility into how energy “sloshed” through the grid as houses produced more than they consumed.
Monitoring is not just about outage prevention. It also reveals invisible stresses that, if left untracked, become expensive failures.
Stepped Curtailment as a Solution
The fieldwork helped test a concept called stepped curtailment. Rather than disconnect solar panels entirely when the grid was stressed, modern inverters could be commanded to reduce output gradually. Instead of “all or nothing,” homes could scale back contribution, avoiding blackouts while still selling some power back.
California utilities, having experienced repeated brownouts, became early adopters of stepped curtailment. Other regions have been slower, but the model is spreading as solar penetration rises.
Flexible infrastructure is often more cost-effective than brute-force upgrades. Technologies that allow systems to dial usage up or down are crucial to long-term resilience.
The Cost of Replacement
Transformers at the subdivision level are not generic parts. They are custom-built, expensive, and can take months to replace. This delay turns a single equipment failure into a community-wide disruption. By modeling stresses with sensor data, Brian’s team helped utilities anticipate when and where reinforcements were needed, buying time and reducing unnecessary replacements.
Preventive monitoring avoids “hidden” costs. Investing in sensors and analysis can be cheaper than rushing to replace burned-out equipment.
From Silos to Shared Learning
The project also highlighted the value of sharing data across disciplines. The same measurements used for solar studies proved useful to computer scientists modeling distributed systems and to engineers studying resiliency. By resisting silos and building interoperability, Brian multiplied the project’s impact.
Researchers across industries have echoed this need. Reports from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory stress that cross-domain integration is essential to scaling renewable adoption.
Practical Lessons for IT and Infrastructure
Design for Flexibility: Rigid systems break under stress. Build capacity to scale dynamically.
Instrument Everything: Even small sensors create data that can prevent catastrophic costs.
Plan for Supply Chain Delays: Custom parts like transformers require months of lead time. Anticipate replacements early.
Encourage Data Sharing: Insights in one field may solve problems in another.