This is Think Tech Hawai'i, the community matters here. Bingo! You know, it reminds me of the last line of Portnoy's complaint by Philip Roth. What was it? He said, and now we begin. And now we begin Hawai'i, the state of clean energy here on a Wednesday. It's our flagship energy show supported by the Hawai'i Energy Policy Forum, of which Maria Tomei is a member of the steering committee and one of the hardest working people in the welcome to the show. Well, thank you. Your show. Well, almost. Yes. Thanks, Jerry. Yeah. Great to have you here. So let's, you know, introduce people to the table. To my left is Shannon Tangadan, and she is the spokesperson for Hawai'i Electric. Hi, Shannon. Hi. Nice to be here. Thank you. Thank you. And to her left is Dingo Litzwey, Clarence Nubay, and he is with Hawai'i Pacific University about green business. He's a green business awardee of Hawai'i Pacific University. And Maria will tell us more about him when she introduces it. But first, we want to do Hawai'i Electric News. And the news which you've been hearing from so many places is your proactive change of these coupler devices throughout, what, Kaka'ako in order to make service more reliable down there. Can you talk about it? Yeah. We're working. We started Monday. We started Monday through Thursdays for two weeks, and then we built in some contingency for the third week. And we're working in Kaka'ako, Iwi-Lay, and Alamoana areas. What we're doing is we're going into manholes, about 70 manholes, and replacing about 400 of these places here. That looks very heavy. Can I just lift that up? Sure. You can do some bicep curls. Biceps. Oh.  Tell me if you think this is heavy. Whoa. Careful. Okay. Yeah. That's heavy. This is a heavy piece of gear. So what does that piece of gear do? Well, it connects the high-voltage cables to the circuits that serve our homes and businesses in the area. And we had, I guess, over the past year, some unplanned outages. And we found that this was the cause. Previous version. Yeah. Previous version. Some of them were failing. So what happens when it fails? If one of these fails, then the power goes out. The power goes out. Okay. It's not covering. Science. Yeah. So the power goes out. So what we're trying to do is prevent the unplanned outages. And so we're going in proactively. In order to do the work, though, we do need to power down our equipment. So we've had planned outages, Mondays through Thursdays, 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Okay. And this means that people can get more rest. Yes. We'd like to think so. Really? I don't think that's very inconvenient. Most people go to sleep around that time anyway. Yeah. We know that we are causing an inconvenience. Not everyone goes to bed at 10. So we're just asking that they plan ahead.  There's a lot of things you don't really think about. So we're just asking them to plan ahead. Not everyone will be affected every single night of the project. We're working in different sections, a different night, but some people will experience multiple outages. Oh, really? Yeah. Over maybe more than one night? Yes. It depends on whether you have a two-week process or a three-week process. Well, weather, for instance, just in general working conditions, we have to de-water the manholes before the workers can even go in. Can we talk about that? Why do we have to de-water? A little water is okay, right? Well, we can't be working with, you know, water, underwater. Because it's 25 kilovolts. Yeah, 25 kilovolts. You want to be at ground on 25 kilovolts to ruin your whole day? It would. So what we're doing is, again, de-watering, powering down all the equipment so that our crews can work safely. Yeah, okay. Gee, it's not like a big effort.  It's a huge effort. Every night we have about 100 employees, crews, you know, working crew members. So it's kind of unprecedented to have such a huge effort on a proactive basis. Can you talk about that? Yeah. I mean, we have not done anything this huge, I don't know if ever, so having planned outages, having the crews, you know, logistically, this is a huge infrastructure upgrade, yeah. So of course, the stakes are high too. You don't want to have outages in this neighborhood. It's getting more, what's the word, intense, more concentrated all the time. Yeah. High density area. So we want to make sure that they have reliable service, kind of improved service, reliable. I guess it's part of, you know, the growing pains of Cacaaco is what it is. You put all those condos in there, all those people, it was like 20,000 units or something like that. It's a lot of units. It's definitely a growing area, and this is the only area with the 25 kilovolt cabling. Okay. So 25 kilovolts is not necessarily, you know, the level of kilovolts all around. This is unusual in the sense that the kilovolt number is so high, and what this needs, what the couplers need to carry is so high. Yeah. Usually, when you're talking about residential areas, you have 12 kilovolt lines. So the 25 kilovolts, it's double what we normally use to serve homes and businesses. Just because the substations are at some distance from the areas involved. Yeah, definitely. It's in the outskirts of the Cacaaco, Ivile, Alamoana areas. We just don't have enough space to have more substations, build more substations in the heart of Cacaaco. So we instead chose to use these types of lines. So Santa, is this going to happen again? Elsewhere? No. It's a one-time deal. Yeah. It really says something about the utility. What do you think it says about the utility? Well, it says that we're thinking ahead and being proactive and just trying to avoid inconvenience in the future for our customers. Yeah. That's great. Important for a growing neighborhood. Yeah. Maria, what are your points of curiosity on this? I see you looking at the couplers. You want to lift it up too? No, that's, yeah. I know about this project, so I'm glad that it's being addressed, which is important. We wish it could be done without the inconvenience, but given that it has to be done in a timely manner, I think, hopefully it all goes well. Yeah. As far as the first two nights have been good. The second night was the real test, you know, earlier overnight, because we had four circuits that we were working on. I mean, that was just huge. On Monday, we only were working on two circuits. So I think yesterday, starting from 10 p.m., it was really the test, and so we're working in the same area this evening, and hopefully things will go smoothies throughout the project and we'll be done within two weeks. So far, you're on schedule. So far, we are on schedule. Yes. I understand. Do you have any points of curiosity you want to address to Shannon? I was actually wondering. I didn't actually know that this was an ongoing project. I only discovered that last night when I got home. Oh, really? Yeah. They were doing the work, I guess, until 10 a.m. So it's a good thing that, as you mentioned, they've been proactive, and it's got to be done. Yeah. It's long overdue. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's been a year where we've had these issues, you know, service reliability in these certain areas, and we just wanted to make sure that we are addressing it and getting the project done. Okay. Well, I think one thing is to be noted, and that is, you're going out to tell people. You issued a press release, you've been on the media, other media before us, even before us. And you're telling everyone so that no one is surprised at 10 o'clock, yeah. We were definitely proactive. We sent out letters, our folks canvassed certain areas, visited businesses, so we are definitely out in the community, you know, trying to make sure that everybody is aware of what's happening. Yeah. That's clear. So you want to address the public for a minute there. They are behind the red light. What message would you leave with them today? Well, we just want to let you know that we're working hard to improve service in the Iwi Lake, Kakaako, and Alamoana areas, and to say thank you for being patient with us. We know that the outages are an inconvenience, but we wanted to do this project in a way where we had the least impact on customers. Thank you, Shannon. Shannon Tanganon, she's spokesperson for Hawaiian Electric, telling us about their special proactive project. Thank you so much for coming down. Thank you. I appreciate it. We're going to be patient now and take one minute off, and then we'll come back. And when we come back, Shannon will be back at work. Thank you, Shannon. Thank you. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. Hi, I'm Bill Sharp, host of Asian Review here on Think Tech Hawaii. Tell me every Monday afternoon from 5 to 5.30 Hawaii Standard Time for an insightful discussion of Contemporary Asian Affairs. There's so much to discuss, and the guests that we have are very, very well informed. Just think, we have the upcoming negotiation between President Trump and Kim Jong-un, the possibility of Xi Jinping, the leader of China remaining in power forever. We'll see you then. Do you want to be cool? If so, watch my show on Tuesdays at one called Out of the Comfort Zone. I sang this song to you because I think you either are cool or have the potential to be seriously cool. And I want you to come watch my show where I bring in experts who talk all about easy strategies to be healthier, happier, build better relationships, and make your life a success. So come sit with the cool kids at Out of the Comfort Zone on Tuesdays at one. See you. Okay, we're back. And as I told you, Shannon left. So we're just us alone now, you guys. So at last. So I just want to point out, as she mentioned during the break, that this project is now, and because this video may play on YouTube for a while, we should say the project started on Monday the 16th of July, 2018, the project will end two or three weeks hence. Yeah. So by August 2nd or so. Yeah, or August 2nd or so, okay. Thank you for mentioning that. So if you're watching this after that, then not news anymore. Don't get too excited. The lights will go off. Okay, Maria, would you make the formal introduction of our special guest today? Okay. So I'm happy to have a guest from Hawaii Pacific University. The reason we invited them was we had formerly heard from the Hawaii Green Business Program. Gail Suzuki-Jones was on and talking about that program and having some winners. And I said, hey, we should hear from the folks who have done the things and got recognized for it. And HPU was one of them. So Mr. Nkube, he goes by Clarence, but his real name is Dingelizwe? Dingelizwe, yeah. Okay. Thank you. So he's here to talk to us about some of the wonderful things that Hawaii Pacific University is doing in the area of not just energy efficiency, but also renewable energy and sustainability and even things reaching into the community and helping with some of the natural areas and teaching the students about this as well. So welcome to the show. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you very much. And I'm going to work hard to pronounce it to Dingelizwe and hope that I did that right. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. You got it. So tell us what's going on in HPU. Okay. So we recently got recognized actually on May 2018, May 3, for sustainability initiatives. So basically we went through what we call the Hawaii Green Business Program Checklist. We had to satisfy things on the checklist. Also related to either energy efficiency, waste management. We looked at recycling. We looked at water conservation. Innovation was actually one of them as well. And as part of our programming, we did implement a lot of energy efficiency projects as part of the Aloha Tau project. We implemented also, we did a PPA, so we actually have a PV system. This phase was just completed sometime this year and that's a 310 kilowatt, so PV system. And currently we're actually on doing the second phase for PV system, which will give us an additional 350 kilowatts, so for a total of 660 kilowatt PV system. So what facilities does this serve? It's mostly the Aloha Tau marketplace. So basically building one, two, three and four, so the whole of, so the entire roof. So we'll be actually putting a PV system. I have a recollection of meeting you there. Yeah, we met. We met on the sidewalk. You said hello. I said hello, yeah. It's like 60, 90 days ago. Yes, we did. Yeah. I didn't know at the time, this is what you did. So okay, so where are you in the project now?  First phase was completed. So it's online. It's online right now. The whole thing. The second phase. The first phase. Okay. So right now we're, we're, they're working on the second phase and we hope to have that up in 2019 and hopefully have the whole system up and running. It's all solar. Solar, PV, yeah. PV, PPA. You know, it's interesting. I don't know if you've addressed this, but it's interesting that just C-word of the, of the medical school, which is what, you know, half a mile away, maybe less, there's deep sea water. You know, what do you call it, O-TEC? This O-TEC deep sea cold water out there off the shelf, not too far, maybe a quarter mile or something from the medical school. And in fact, when they designed the medical school, they designed it to use O-TEC for air conditioning of some of the buildings there. And even now today, some of the buildings in the medical school are air conditioned in part. Sea water air conditioning. Sea water air conditioning. Yeah. Swack, actually. Yeah. Swack. Sea water air conditioning. But yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. Yeah. It's the same concept. You're getting the cold water and you're saying, you know, you're doing things that are good from an energy perspective and using your local resources instead of, you know, burning fuel. Yeah. Yeah. And what that tells me is, although it's not perfect, like in Nelha, in Kona, it is perfect because the drop off of the shelf there is straight down for, I don't know, thousands of feet. That's not quite that way of John A. Burns School of Medicine. And so they don't have the same O-TEC leverage there. But they do have some and they are using it. And they need cold water. Yeah. They need chilling for the, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And in fact, there was a company that was, they never really got it together, but there was a company called Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning Company and they were going to do all the downtown buildings. So I take it you haven't heard from them recently and we should have them on the show one of these days. Yeah, on the show. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure they're still doing it. Well, let's hear from them. We should investigate. Yeah. But my point is, does HPU consider this a possibility to deep sea water, O-TEC-type air conditioning? What have you? It would have been a possibility. I think we kind of missed the window. So basically the project, when we did the project, I think we kind of missed each other. It could have been a possibility. But we already had a central plant, so a cooling tower system, condenser water system already set up as part of our HVAC system. I think that often happens. Yeah. And I think that people, capital interest management is always concerned about using the most proven technology, the one they are sure to a moral certainty that it will work and they look all around and see if anybody else is using it. So they say, we're going to use this, too, because nobody would take a chance of being adventurous when it might not work. And also, the first thing you do is efficiency, and so they've done a ton of stuff in efficiency because if you can keep the heat out of the building, then you don't have to air condition the heat out. So before you would even size something like that, you would do everything you can to improve your lighting, reduce your equipment, so they've done all sorts of improvements on their buildings, not only the envelope, but also the equipment inside the buildings. And there was one feature that I saw in here that I thought was really cool. Even CO2 sensors, so that you can tell that you have enough fresh air and oxygen for these young folks who are learning in your environments, actually, I shouldn't say that because students come in all ages and the professors also need to have good quality for it. But it makes a difference. So the quality of the lighting, the quality of the air, and so I don't want to talk about anything like that. Yeah, that was actually part of our lower tower project as HPE took over the project and we did implement a number of lead principles. In terms of the team that was on there, we really got into death in terms of trying to focus on energy efficiency, improving the building envelope, improving the existing equipment and upgrading a lot of the equipment. And it's actually saved the university in terms of dollars and kilowatt hours, a lot of kilowatt hours. But this is mostly about air conditioning. Yeah, just air conditioning. Sealing the building envelope better. Yeah, sealing the building. Providing renewables for driving the air conditioning equipment. So one thing comes to mind, and it always comes to mind, Maria and I have this conversation on a regular basis. It's climate change, okay? So, you know. Our theme for this. We know. Oh, yeah. Yes, we know that things are getting hotter. They are. What did I hear recently? This is not directly on point, but the rat lung worm experience in Hawaii is going up in dramatic numbers. And the reason is the ecology is changing because of the increase in temperature. And so you have a proliferation of that particular worm and so the disease. So it has all kinds of secondary effects. Any kind of change in the ambient temperature has secondary effects. Okay, so what I get is that you want, HPU wants to keep these kids cool. This is dormitories, yeah? Yeah. They want to keep these. They want to make it comfortable for these kids. So it's getting hotter. You don't have to question me on that. No, it is. It is getting hotter. Yeah. So it's more important to keep them cool. And you need more cooling to keep them cool when it gets hotter outside. At the same time, you have to spend more and provide more energy, so to speak, to keep them cool when it gets hotter outside, like a spiral up. So the question is, are you saving money? That's my question. Good thing, yeah. You bring up a good question. We have actually focused a lot in terms of, we're bringing cooling, yeah, of HVAC system to the students. But what we have done, actually, with the equipment, we've invested in energy-efficient premium pumps and motors. And we actually added variable frequency drives to our cooling towers and our motors to kind of reduce. So with our cooling towers, we're not operating them at full capacity. So we have the opportunity to actually just use one cooling tower per building as part of our energy efficiency goals. And I think that has actually helped quite a bit in terms of... One instead of more than one? Yeah. We were there before? We have four cooling towers, so basically, yeah, that actually operate the building, but they're very efficient, because we've been able to implement a number of those, upgrade most of the equipment to energy. What I get is that the cooling tower is cooling the water that goes through the air conditioning system. If the cooling tower is not efficient, then it takes more energy to cool the water in the cooling tower. Furthermore, if you can have one tower instead of four, it's saving a lot of energy. Yeah, saving a lot of energy. And finally, what they're going to say is that the cooling tower is the central core mechanism of any air conditioning system, and the cooling tower all by itself costs a lot of money. It costs a lot of money to buy, build, and to maintain, and it has to be maintained. So if you have only one instead of four already right there, the number is just saving a lot of money. Yeah. Yeah. And it's gone beyond the building. Yes, it was beyond the buildings as well. Yeah. Transportation. Transportation as well. We looked into actually reducing our carbon footprint on campus. So we do encourage a lot of students to use alternative forms of transportation. So currently we actually have an enterprise car shape program on property. We do have Bikki as well at Bikki Station. We partnered up with Bikki. So students have the option of either riding Bikki or taking the bus as well. We have a bus location there. We have a car shape program as well, an online car sharing program called HPU Greenwright, where students can go online and if they're looking for other students who are interested in either walking or car sharing or car pooling, they have that option of actually going online and finding students to car pool or car share. With regard for the fact that you're an important person in the energy facilities for HPU and Aloha Tower, what would happen if you weren't there? What would happen if nothing happened? If nobody took any steps to make this more efficient? What would the natural, this is like the ghosts of Christmas future, what would happen if you stopped or rather you never started? Never started. What would happen to the project, to Aloha Tower, to the air conditioning there, to the students, what not? If we're not implemented any of these energy efficiency measures and any of the green principles, I think would have actually ended up costing us a lot of money to maintain and wouldn't have been as efficient as it is right now and long term wouldn't have helped us save our energy costs. So it's a good thing we ended up doing this. So this is actually helping not just the university because we're committed, the university is actually committed to improving the economic, social and environmental well-being of not just the university but the state of Hawaii as well. And do the students care? I mean the students and the faculty and staff, is it something they're proud of? Yeah, they're proud of it. Yeah, they're very proud and we have actually a green program as well, so actually graduated from the Global Leadership Sustainable Development Program which is a program at HPU and we have a lot of students who study environmental science and who are very passionate about sustainability. So if you didn't have the program, they would probably be asking for one, demanding one. Yeah. Why don't, yeah. It strikes me that if I'm a student, you know, there's a lot of stress in being a student, I'm sure we can ornament that. And if it gets hot, you know, it's very unpleasant, especially if it gets hotter all the time. And you know, study as well and you know, think as well and your life, quality of life as a student is really degraded if you're not in a good environment. So I think it's important for students to have this at the core. At the core. The other thing is going forward, okay, let's assume you've finished the project. What's the next project? Oh, what's been on my mind is actually NET-0. Ah, NET-0. NET-0 has definitely been on my mind, because I just saw the UH University in Maui, which is actually going NET-0, so that's much. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so that's actually my dream and you know, hope to, I think those will be the next steps after energy efficiency, kind of go NET-0, where we kind of reduce, completely reduce, reuse, recycle, reduce our waste on campus. Well that's pretty exciting. Yeah. Good for you. Thank you. So is your experience in this area from before, before you came or what? I was into actually environmental, I was into conservation actually when I was still back home in Zimbabwe and you know, passionate about the environment and you know, trying to be the change, you know, make things better. So when I moved here, I was actually interested in actually joining the program here that had that focus, the sustainability aspect of being here.  Yeah, for sure. So what you're doing going to be helpful to other organizations? I mean for example, say I'm with West Oahu, I don't know what their situation is and I come around and I say, pardon me, can you show me what you did because I want to do the same thing. I'm not too far from the water and I have a lot of heat here and it's getting hotter over there. I have students and what not. Can you help me? Yeah, in terms of, I think this provides opportunities for us to share ideas and best practices. I've been thinking about that as an opportunity actually with other universities, organizations who've implemented a number of projects that are energy efficient or sustainable to kind of learn from them and learn what the best practices are at the moment. Is there an organization of guys like you who compare notes and break bread and share your technologies and your plans and designs and aspirations? Maybe not designs as such, but I do have kind of a network like the sustainability coordinator at University of Hawaii, Matt Lynch, and a number of people who are actually involved in sustainability. There's almost on the board as well for the USGBC Hawaii as well. So we have a number of people who are passionate about the environment, whether it's a built environment. Whether it be architecture or engineering and so it's kind of the different sectors. Right. Maria, your turn. Yeah, well. And you can pursue this line of questioning or any other one. Yeah, no, this is excellent because you mentioned the mentorship part of it, so learning from what others have done and also sharing your experience. And sometimes people focus on the buildings only. There is more awareness now of the importance of transportation, but you've also got a bunch of water-saving landscape design using less thirsty plants. If you do have to water something, water them not in the heat of the day, a lot of the common sense stuff that you hear, but you bring it all together and you show it being done. So I think that's an excellent way yet. And even the selection of your fixtures, I guess there's some water-wise or water-sense fixtures. You've got your energy-star equipment, your water-sense fixtures, and so a lot of it is keeping up with what is available and bringing it together. So it doesn't even have to be a grandiose new design, but making sure you incorporate the best of the best and then sharing success and failures because maybe some of the stuff doesn't work quite as well. You can do that with your network, right? You can talk about, you know, we used this and this and this, and you know, we installed it five years ago, and that one is still working. Yeah, yeah. That's trial and error. The trial and error, right? You can get the benefit of somebody else who's trying to do that. Exactly, the experience. Yeah. Well, if I were you and I were called to summarize where this fits in the larger land, the HPU project fits in the larger landscape, and first I would ask about the Green Business Award, what that means and where that comes from. And I would also, you know, try to put it in a larger landscape because what it means is it's a level of awareness. It's not simply the technology. It's having everybody in the state who is responsible for serious capital concentrations and big buildings, facilities in general, think about these things. And it should be, it is becoming the new normal. And we have got to move in this direction. And I think Clarence Dingley's way is doing exactly that. So this is all a very optimistic thing. And maybe it'll catch on. Well, it is catching on, I think.  So it's very important to get your buildings right. But what they're also doing is education. And so sharing with the students what they're doing and a respect for the sustainability aspect. I was also impressed by some of the elements on their program. Hawaii Nature Center, Loko Eau Fishpond, Papahana, Kualoa, Pali Lookout with the Watershed Partnership. So, you know, these types of activities are getting people to be aware of the parts of the ecosystem that are providing the water or need to be protected, you know, the shoreline, the mountains, everything in between. So it's not just what we're doing in our built environments, but also respecting and appreciating the environments surrounding us. So our Student Life Office actually has that program, the Hawaii Spotlight Program, which has been a great program. They get to students have the opportunity to actually go out into the community and actually work on some of these projects and kind of help. So that's been an eye-opener for a lot of students who have moved here from the mainland or kind of like they came here and did not know this was here, this opportunity was available and kind of kind of opened up their eyes and some of them are passionate now about the environment. Yeah.  You're at the front end of things. There's room for improvement. Usually we go through the checklist and we go through, you know, a number of programs, but there's definitely room to grow and to do more. So what is the Green Business Award? You missed the show. We had Gail Suzuki-Jones. It's actually a D-Bed coordinated with Department of Health and some other partners as well. And every year they have Green Business Awards. So what shows should I look at to find out more about Green Business Awards? Oh, something last month, seven weeks ago. Yeah, so she recommended me for the show. And you got an award, is that it? Yes, we've got an award. Okay, excellent. We're out of time. Maria, can you summarize as you will and say farewell? Thank you.  And so we've had, you know, from the bad news of sea level rise impacting some of our very valuable and favorite and very sensitive ecosystems to the more positive of, well, you know, people are working on solutions and sharing those solutions. And there's all sorts of activity happening, not just on the planning side and the analysis side, but also proactively as well. So the theme of sustainability, you know, you can kind of pick where you want to be on the curve between extremely fearful, as we all should take it seriously, but we should not be paralyzed, you know, and we need to keep an eye on what's happening that we can do to make a difference and we need to celebrate those and to encourage them. And shows like this. Thank you very much, Jay. And thank you very much. Thank you for the invitation. It's been an eye-opening honor to actually be on your show. Thank you for being here. It's nice to meet you the second time. The second time, yeah. Thank you, Maria, Tom. Thanks for being here. Thanks, Jay. And being co-host. What's next week? Next week. Oh, yes. We have architects. Yes. Architects Hawaii. Oh, excellent. Architects Hawaii. Yes. Wow. Yes. That's at the core of things for sure. I think they're using the acronym AHL, and I think Lester is going to be with us. Oh, Lester. Yes. I had to think about that one. I saw this one. Yes. Thank you both. Thank you. Thanks, Jay. Aloha. Aloha. Aloha. Aloha. Aloha. Aloha. Aloha. Aloha. Aloha. Aloha. Aloha. Aloha. Aloha. Aloha.