Hawaiian Electric Co. has received $500,000 in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to help integrate more solar energy into its electric grids. 

The funding, announced Tuesday as part of $7.8 million in grants from the DOE’s SunShot Initiative, comes at at time when HECO is grappling with how to allow more solar onto its grids without causing power disruptions or surges that can harm equipment or even workers. 

Currently, about 9 percent of HECO’s residential customers have switched to solar, the highest percentage of any state. 

Unlike the mainland, HECO’s grids on Oahu, the Big Island and in Maui County are small and isolated — which makes integrating greater amounts of rooftop solar all the more challenging. 

Last month, HECO informed potential solar customers on Oahu that they may have to pay for studies and grid upgrades in order to put solar on their roofs if they are in an area where there is already a high concentration of solar on the grid. 

HECO’s new policies have angered the solar industry and left some solar customers in limbo, as Civil Beat reported last week: Some Solar Companies Getting Burned in Limbo.

Photo: Solar panels on the roof of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Forrestal Building. (Credit, U.S. DOE)

— Sophie Cocke