UHERO
Michael Roberts
From Oil to LNG: Would It Really Lower Hawaii’s Electricity Rates?
By Michael J. Roberts Hawaiʻi’s electricity rates are the highest in the nation — roughly three times the U.S. average. The main reason is that…
Hawai‘i’s Fuel Cost Problem: What the LSFO–LNG Price Comparison Really Shows
By Michael J. Roberts Hawaiʻi’s electricity rates are the highest in the nation — roughly three times the U.S. average — and have been for…
A Proposal for Real-Time Pricing Tariffs for Large Electricity Customers
As Oahu’s electric grid transitions to clean energy, characterized by variable wind, solar, and storage resources, the marginal cost of electricity will become increasingly variable…
Optimal transmission expansion minimally reduces decarbonization costs of U.S. electricity
Solar and wind power are cost-competitive with fossil fuels, yet their intermittent nature presents challenges. Significant temporal and geographic differences in land, wind, and solar…
Embracing TOU: Nudges, Rates, and Renewable Energy
By Michael Roberts, Nori Tarui and Ethan Hartely Hawaiian Electric Company is about to embark on a significant experiment: a pilot program introducing time-of-use (TOU)…
Real-Time Pricing and the Cost of Clean Power
Solar and wind power are now cheaper than fossil fuels but are intermittent. The extra supply-side variability implies growing benefits of using real-time retail pricing…
Are We Building Too Much Natural Gas Pipeline? A comparison of actual US expansion of pipeline to an optimized plan of the interstate network
Interstate natural gas transmission and storage infrastructure is facilitated using regulated, private transactions. Pipeline companies obtain long-term contracts from producers and wholesale purchasers, typically local…
Using Temperature Sensitivity to Estimate Shiftable Electricity Demand Implications for power system investments and climate change
Growth of intermittent natural hazard resilience make it increasingly difficult to manage electricity demand variability. Transmission and centralized storage technologies can help, but are costly.…
The Agricultural Economic Landscape in Hawai‘i and the Potential for Future Economic Viability
By Sarah Rehkamp, Michael J. Roberts, and James M. MacDonald In a recent UHERO policy brief, Reviving Agriculture to Diversify Hawai‘i’s Economy, authors pointed to…