Léo Azambuja Special to the garden island LIHU‘E — The economic downturn that the country is experiencing has not stopped Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative from predicting a bright future for the Garden Island. KIUC President Randall Hee said during a
Léo Azambuja
Special to the garden island
LIHU‘E — The economic downturn that the country is experiencing has not stopped Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative from predicting a bright future for the Garden Island.
KIUC President Randall Hee said during a quarterly meeting Tuesday that morning peak demands might exceed the co-op’s ability to supply enough power to its members by 2013.
During morning peak, the largest and the third-largest power generation units are out, and the total output of KIUC is 76.25 megawatts. According to a graphic presented at the meeting, around 10 a.m. the island’s demand is only a couple megawatts bellow that number.
KIUC is currently looking at several options of power generation to supply the predicted demand increase, including building new bio-fueled facilities, converting existing systems to bio-fuel burning, installing windmills, new hydroelectric turbines, solar photovoltaic systems, and bio-fueled small generators at selected sites, such as large resorts.
Hee said all systems are still in consideration, but time is ticking, and any project would take years to be finished.
Some 40 community members attended the meeting, a drastic increase over the co-op’s previous public meeting. The majority soundly questioned KIUC’s optimistic prediction based on historical knowledge, especially in such a time of global economic crisis, adding that would be a waste of financial resources if the co-op develops unnecessary projects.
Hee assured them that any project would be in accordance with the demand.
“We follow the demand,” he said. “We don’t create the demand.”
However, Hee said a decision has to be made before the demand exceeds the supply.
Even if KIUC chooses to develop renewable-energy projects, there is still a long road to completion.
“These renewable projects … require some planning as well,” Hee said. “My problem is to ensure that we meet the supply when that demand is requested.
“I have an obligation to supply (energy). I cannot control the number of people that decide to come to Kaua‘i.”
Nonetheless, Hee said if the prediction changes and the demand stabilizes, KIUC would stop a project.
Concerned co-op members suggested that the island’s population might need to consider lifestyle changes, and one member even suggested a “brownout,” a reduction in use of electrical appliances as an economic measure.
Hee said a lifestyle change is an option, but a brownout might damage businesses.
KIUC is also planning on updating utility poles throughout the island, and a design for a new pole is still being drafted.
One of the major issues that KIUC faces is the hazard that utility lines may represent to endangered native birds.
The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating KIUC for the incidental taking of two of Hawai‘i’s endangered birds, the Newell’s shearwater and the Hawaiian petrel.
After denying KIUC a 20-year incidental take permit, the DLNR and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife agency proposed a five-year permit, on the condition that KIUC develops a Kaua‘i Seabird Habitat Conservation Plan.
A draft of the plan was submitted last April. Part of the plan will be to study the flight patterns and largely unknown habits of those seafaring birds.
Some concerned citizens suggested that KIUC buries its utility lines. Hee said the cost would be too high, but the option is not out of the picture.
In the meantime, the Rural Utility Services, a USDA rural development agency, is funding a project in Wailua, which will take about two years to be completed.
In about six months KIUC will start burying utility lines from the south entrance of the Kapa‘a Bypass, passing through the bottom of Wailua River, and going all the way to the new facility being built at the south entrance of Lydgate Park on Kuhio Highway.
The cost of the project is estimated at about $17 million, a sharp contrast to $14 million spent to replace 16 miles of utility poles after Hurricane Iniki, according to Jack Leavitt, KIUC transmission and distribution manager.
KIUC filed for a 10.5 percent rate increase, which will go through a public hearing at 6 p.m., Aug. 25, at Wilcox Elementary School. After that, the proposed rate increase will go through a discovery period and additional discussions.
KIUC will host its membership meeting from 4 to 6 p.m., Aug. 16, at the War Memorial Convention Hall. Chili and rice will be served, and the first 200 members will receive a free bag of rice.
