Editor’s note: Today is the final article in a series of profiles on the candidates running in the KIUC board of director’s election set for March 22. The profiles ran one each day for the last six days. To read
Editor’s note: Today is the final article in a series of profiles on the candidates running in the KIUC board of director’s election set for March 22. The profiles ran one each day for the last six days. To read how candidates answered a set of questions posed by The Garden Island, go to www.kauaiworld.com
Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative board candidate Tom Ellis believes the utility’s goal of attaining 50 percent energy output from renewables by the year 2023 is unreasonable.
If renewables are truly cost-effective, the 50 percent goal will be achieved by pursuing a strategy of least-cost operation, he added. If time is the No. 1 priority, then cost will become a mere footnote.
“That goal is artificially high,” Ellis said. “It is not economically viable.”
The state-mandated goals of 10 percent renewable by 2010, 15 percent by 2015 and 20 percent by 2020 are attainable, he added, “and they are law.”
The Hawaii Renewable Portfolio Standard — which is determined in the state Legislature, not the KIUC boardroom — should be the guiding document, Ellis states.
He says the strategic plan developed by the current KIUC board is a good start, but does not go all the way. “(The strategic plan) covers the renewable energy issues, but it does not acknowledge that it could be very, very expensive to execute,” Ellis said. “My plan will be to bring a balance of environmental consciousness and customer costs into implementation of the plan.”
The candidate says he is as much in favor of renewables as the next guy, but is not willing to encumber members with huge debt along the way.
“We need to keep a focus and not go to the poorhouse,” Ellis said. “We need to get our spiraling costs under control.”
Part of doing that will require those who have more to pay a little more. “For those folks who have a green mission and truly want this island to be green as it can be, and can afford to pick up more of their share, then KIUC should offer innovative rate options,” he said.
Such rate options will allow those who can to purchase green energy or carbon emissions certificates. It is an idea that is working in the Pacific Northwest, he said.
Ellis spent several years on the board of directors for a utility co-op in Alaska called the Kodiak Electric Association.
“The fuel situation and the availability of fossil fuel was the same, as were the challenges of going to alternate energy,” Ellis said.
His experience on the Alaska board helped him understand the constraints of rolling reserve, a power storage method to deal with peak demand, or times when power has been knocked out.
“Right now the industry is finding when they put an alternate in like wind power, there are inefficiencies, such as not getting as much as they want,” Ellis said. Storage allows utilities to deal with such issues.
His technical understanding of utilities is an asset, he said, even though those issues fall under KIUC staff jurisdiction.
“What I bring is experience and an urge to resolve tough, sticky questions,” he said. “This is not about what I want, it’s about what we all want.”
Ellis championed labor as the president of a hospital workers union. He retired from the United States Navy in 1984 as a line commander after 24 years.
In 1990, he became a program manager for several years before sailing the South Pacific for six years with his wife. The couple’s three sons have found careers in the Coast Guard, contracting and bank management.
His wife, Suzanne, works part time at Wilcox Hospital and for hospice. Ellis is a member of the Rotary, Amateur Radio Club of Kauai, American Legion and the Navy League.
“I can look at a technology and tell you whether it’s going to work with KIUC,” he said of his real-world experiences. “… I’m familiar enough to analyze the pros and cons.”
A retiree, Ellis says he is able to commit the time to being on the board and has the training required to serve.
“I have no outside agenda other than giving rate payers the best rate we can give them.”
• Adam Harju, editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 227) or aharju@kauaipubco.com.
