Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative board of directors addressed the high cost of fuel as well as its plans to counter rising prices at its regular meeting yesterday. KIUC Chief Executive Officer and President Randy Hee noted that costs for the
Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative board of directors addressed the high cost of fuel as well as its plans to counter rising prices at its regular meeting yesterday.
KIUC Chief Executive Officer and President Randy Hee noted that costs for the co-op have reached all-time highs, with the price of diesel for the Port Allen station now exceeding $3 per gallon for the first time. For December, diesel comes in at $3.0057, compared to November’s cost of $2.72 and October’s nearly $2.50.
Similar rises were seen in naphtha costs, which is priced at $2.34 per gallon for December, compared to $2.12 and $1.97 for the past two months.
“It’s scary to report that December’s fuel prices have again gone up, and members are well aware of it,” Hee said.
These increases will be reflected in the energy adjustment, which translates to bigger bills. That means a customer rate of almost 40 cents per kilowatt hour, up 5 cents from October.
“Certainly higher fuel costs … has been driving up to … increase our renewable efforts,” Hee said.
Apollo Kauai Chairman Ben Sullivan, along with two other speakers, asked the board to consider alternative energy generation in light of rising oil costs.
Resident David Ward testified that the board should borrow as much as necessary to invest in sufficient alternatives.
“I urge you to throw the old book out the window,” he said.
Strategic plan
Chair Dennis Esaki responded that the co-op is well on its way to doing just that. Yesterday the board approved its Strategic Plan, which identifies KIUC’s priorities for the next 15 years. According to Esaki, the plan contains two radical departures: First, KIUC commits to generating 50 percent of its electricity renewably without burning fossil fuels by 2023. Second, it seeks to restructure rates fairly to meet member needs and recognize the changing nature of utilities.
Strategic Planning Committee Chair Derek Kawakami said the plan is the result of months of work. As a living document, it will be updated and reviewed regularly, not put on the shelf, he said.
“Having a plan is not the goal,” Kawakami said. “It’s implementing the intentions and reaching the goals.”
Legislating access to information
The board passed a motion to bring up the issue of protecting member information during its next meeting with Kaua‘i legislators. Legislative Committee Chair Phil Tacbian said he’d like to see legislators consider a way to guard membership lists, which contain names and addresses, from identity theft and junk mail nuisances.
“There is no way to control what is being done with the list (once given out),” Tacbian said.
Kawakami, also a member of the Legislative Committee, agreed, saying he doesn’t want any piece of an identity theft puzzle coming from KIUC. “It’s not my intent to block any transparency,” he noted.
Currently, the list is provided to members who fill out the proper request forms and a confidentiality agreement and are running for election to the board, wish to call a special member meeting or obtain signatures for a member petition. This is required of the co-op by state law.
This item was addressed in September when the board updated policy No. 16, which governs access to cooperative information, to bring it into compliance with Hawai‘i Revised Statutes. At that time, Tacbian and Kawakami were the sole dissenting votes. Both said then that such member information should be protected. But the board’s legal counsel, attorney David Proudfoot, said there was nothing short of changing the law that would exempt KIUC from providing the lists.
Yesterday, Tacbian said the committee had not drafted proposed legislation to present during a meeting with Kaua‘i lawmakers. When asked if access to the list under the current rules had been identified as a problem or whether other utility cooperatives had considered similar measures to protect member lists, the Legislative Committee did not have definitive answers.
Proudfoot said it will be important to locate the portions of state law that require the lists to be public before suggesting changes.
“You have to understand what we give and what the possible nexus is going to be (with any of the cited concerns) before you say this is what could happen,” Proudfoot told the board.
Board member Peter Yukimura suggested that the board look into related policies of other Hawaiian utility companies for guidance. Proudfoot noted, however, that there are “substantial legal differences” between cooperative and private sector requirements.
A motion allowing the board to bring the issue up to lawmakers passed unanimously, with a request from Esaki to consider how other co-ops have handled similar concerns.
Also relating to access to information, Sullivan testified at the start of the meeting that the board’s informal policy to not comment individually to media was a step in the wrong direction.
“Our concern is that the community is really keen to engage on the major issues and the ‘policy’ seems to be a step in the wrong direction,” he told The Garden Island after the meeting. “… How do we participate in a democratically organized cooperative if we don’t know where individual board members stand on issues.”
The agreement, which was announced at last month’s meeting, was not addressed yesterday. It remains an informal policy that has not been validated by a board vote.
President’s report
In October, there were two reportable accidents that did not result in lost time and were not electricity-related.
For the month there were seven PUC-reportable outages for an average 0.14 average outage hours per customer. Total outages, including non-reportable incidents, were 22 for October, for 0.15 average outage hours per customer.
For more information on KIUC board policies or to review the Strategic Plan, visit www.kiuc.coop.
