By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau
LIHU‘E, Kaua‘i — Kaua‘i Electric plans to deliver power from its proposed new power plant to the islandwide grid with a tap into its main high-voltage transmission line between Lihu‘e and Kapa‘a.
The new power plant, called the Lihu‘e Energy Service Center, is to be built about three-quarters of a mile mauka of Lihu‘e and Hanama‘ulu.
The company proposes to run a power line on steel, hurricane-resistant poles, to the transmission line, meeting it near the intersection of ‘Ehiku and Kanakolu Streets, at the mauka end of the Isenberg Tract residential subdivision.
The company expects to use light-weight polymer insulators that should have less visual impact than standard insulators. It plans to install 21 poles along the route between the transmission line and the power plant, most of them 85 feet tall. Poles near the service center will rise 100 feet.
Utility manager Denny Polosky said the firm does not anticipate negative effects on the residential area. He said the firm has already removed a power substation in Isenberg Tract, which it will move to the power plant site.
The new line will be entirely on the mauka side and will not pass through the subdivision, he said.
The state Public Utilities Commission will hold a public hearing on the new line at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 23 at Lihu‘e Neighborhood Center, within Isenberg Tract.
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