Hawaii Energy Efficiency Program

Our first meeting with the Hawaii Energy Efficiency Program was very productive. They were able to provide us with a much clearer picture regarding the types of applications they desire. The applications that were discussed dealt with variations in oil prices over time, HEEP's performance report card, how cooling degree days impact power consumption, and a stop light to represent the current power status. HEEP hopes the public will be able to use the information provided in these applications to adjust their energy usage and become more educated about energy issues.

The first application would show how oil prices vary over time. Oahu is very dependent on oil for power generation. Over half of the power generated on Oahu comes from petroleum. This is one reason that HEEP would like the information to be readily accessible from their website. The possibility of using a custom Google Visualization to diplay the information was discussed. The visualization desired would represent the price of oil as stacks of oil barrels.

The next application would display HEEP's performance. HEEP would like the public to have access to a "report card" that would represent HEEP's performance based on cost verses power savings. This would compare how much money was spent to produce a certain amount of power savings. HEEP would like this information updated weekly.

HEEP would also like an application that consumers can use to see how cooling degree days affect power usage as well as power consumption. Each degree over 65 degrees corresponds to one cooling degree day. Consumers could use this information to get a more accurate idea of reasons that their power consumption may have changed from one year to another. Power consumption generally increases as the number of cooling degree days rises due to additional use of air conditioners and other appliances.

Finally, HEEP would like a stop light style application created for their website. This application would be similar to the Ecotricity stop light application that represents the current power status as either red, yellow, or green. These colors correspond to high, moderate, and low demand times respectively. Consumers would then be able to modify their power usage to correspond to lower demand times.

All of these applications seem very useful and I am looking forward to beginning development. The learning curve will be steep at first, but hopefully things will become easier after becoming more familiar with Javascript and Google Visualizations. I hope that we are able to live up to HEEP's expectations and produce the applications that they desire.