The following answers were provided by Kauai Island Utility Cooperative board member Peter Yukimura to a set of questions posed by The Garden Island to the six candidates for the March 22 KIUC board of directors election. The answers provided
The following answers were provided by Kauai Island Utility Cooperative board member Peter Yukimura to a set of questions posed by The Garden Island to the six candidates for the March 22 KIUC board of directors election. The answers provided by the other five candidates were inadvertantly listed without Yukimura’s answers for a week on kauaiworld.com. TGI regrets the error.
1. Commitment: Considering the estimated time of about 800 hours a year will be necessary to be a KIUC board member, what changes are you considering in your life to accommodate this serious commitment of your time?
Peter Yukimura — I have been a KIUC board director since 2005, and since then, have set aside the time, about 800 hours and 14 to 30 days of travel for training and meeting annually, to fulfill my fiduciary responsibilities to KIUC and its members. I am the president of Yukimura’s Inc., which owns Koa Trading Company and M&K Distributors, and I am fortunate that I have excellent staff members on our team so that I don’t have to be involved in the day-to-day operations of the business. I am also very lucky and appreciative that my wife and family are supportive of my commitment to KIUC and our community and are understanding of the time it requires.
2. Experience: What is the largest operational budget and largest capital budget for which you have been responsible, either as a manager or overseer?
Peter Yukimura — As the president of Yukimura’s Inc., I oversee its operating budget of about $7 million. Yukimura’s Inc.’s annual sales total approximately $34 million. The capital budget to construct the Koa Trading Company facility was about $5 million. I am currently the chair of the KIUC Finance Audit Committee, which develops and oversees the company’s annual budget.
3. Regarding the KIUC present strategic plan: What do you consider the best aspects of the plan (deserving more emphasis), the poorest aspects (deserving reconsideration, or eliminated), and what is missing from the plan?
Peter Yukimura — The best aspect of the strategic plan is the goal to have KIUC generate 50 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2023. One area of the strategic plan that may be added to is the member satisfaction piece as I believe that member satisfaction is a result of more than decreased electric bills and fewer outages. Overall, the plan is very well developed; and of course, it will need to be updated as issues and circumstances change.
4. How can KIUC integrate a much larger percentage of clean, renewable sources (solar, wind, hydro and wave) into our present system? Please discuss the possible difficulties of incorporating these intermittent sources of energy.
Peter Yukimura — To integrate more clean, renewable sources into our system we need to develop clean, reliable power such as hydro. The challenge with clean renewable energy is that most of it is intermittent. To utilize this type of energy, KIUC would need to upgrade its current generation to start-up quicker so that it’s more responsive when the intermittent generation goes off.
5. The present strategic plan utilizes a majority of biofuel and biomass sources to reach their goals. These sources present some of the same problems as fossil fuels (emissions), plus the potential in the future of a conflict over agricultural land for food vs. fuel. What are your views on this issue?
Peter Yukimura — The strategic plan goals are met with a majority of biofuel and biomass because these are alternative sources that are already contracted to be purchased or utilized now. It would be wonderful for KIUC to use a greater percentage of cleaner renewable energy. And we developed the strategic plan knowing that it would be a working plan and that if better energy alternatives arise, they would be pursued.
6. What changes should be made in present PUC regulations to facilitate KIUC more quickly incorporating clean, renewable sources of energy on Kaua‘i?
Peter Yukimura — I think that PUC should be more flexible when it comes to setting rates. This will allow KIUC more opportunity to test different types of power sources. Presently, it takes many years and million of dollars just to go in for a rate adjustment.
7. What role do you believe KIUC should play in encouraging increased efficiency and conservation and maximum demand reduction in the use of electricity in our community, e.g. solar water heating, CFLs, efficient appliances, efficient buildings, use of clotheslines rather than clothes dryers, possible lifestyle changes? How would you decide what percentage of KIUC’s budget to spend on these activities?
Peter Yukimura — First, KIUC should definitely be a resource and educate its members in increased energy efficiency and conservation. Second, KIUC should provide its members with incentives to help the consumer do this because this will reduce the need to build new generation. However, if KIUC has costs from providing these incentives, it will have to recover them from the membership. Regarding deciding what percentage of KIUC’s budget to spend on these efforts, we should look into developing a formula to determine the amount of electricity saved to the cost of adding more generation. We would need to do more investigation on the correlation of this relationship.
8. This fall, it will be six years since KE became KIUC. Where in the continuing transition from the old corporate model of ‘sell-max-electricity for-max-sales-and-profit’ to a more cooperative approach of ‘max-community-investment-for-max-community-service-and-value (environmentally responsible)’ do you think we are presently successfully pursuing that goal? What do you see as the next important steps to further this transition?
Peter Yukimura — I strongly believe that we are successfully pursuing the cooperative’s goals. The next important steps to further the transition are educating the members that working towards long-term benefits may not be the cheapest route; but definitely more effective.
9. Within the constraints of what might really be possible, what projects or plans would you like to see KIUC accomplish in the near future? What is your vision for KIUC?
Peter Yukimura — The projects or plans that I would like to see accomplished in the future are:
• KIUC’s owning and operating its own clean renewal energy generation (we need to somehow be able to take advantage of the tax benefits)
• KIUC’s owning and operating more firm power hydro plant.
• KIUC’s having a great working relationship with Gay & Robinson.
My vision for KIUC is to increase renewable energy sources and to be well integrated into the community, where the members agree on its direction, and we all work together to become a better, more sustainable Kaua‘i. I want KIUC to be a model in the cooperative electric industry.
