By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau
LIHU‘E, Kaua‘i — The county administration plans to hire a consultant to review various ways the county could manage Kaua‘i Electric if it were to purchase it.
The county is negotiating with the firm R.W. Beck, a national utility consulting firm, for a $100,000 contract to appraise the utility.
Kaua‘i Electric’s owner, Citizens Communications, has indicated it no longer fits within the company’s business focus. The firm tried to sell its Kaua‘i utility to a local cooperative, but the effort was rejected by the state Public Utilities Commission, in part because the commission concluded the $270 million price was too high.
The county has been studying the option of purchasing the utility as a way of lowering rates, which are the highest in the state and among the highest in the nation.
Mayoral administrative assistant Wallace Rezentes Jr. said he hopes to hire Beck to, in addition to the appraisal, conduct a feasibility study on the effect of various kinds of ownership on community power bills.
Rezentes said he figures the feasibility study will cost $40,000.
The administration has asked the Kaua‘i County Council for money to pay for the two contracts. Rezentes said no contracts have been signed, but he anticipates they will soon be, and that the work could be completed during the summer.
Rezentes said Beck would be asked to study the impact on rates of five different means of ownership of the utility:
 Investor-owned, as it might be if Hawaiian Electric’s parent company bought Kaua‘i Electric.
A cooperative.
County ownership with semi-autonomous management, like the county water department.
Private management of all or part of a county-owned utility, with management selected through a request for proposals.
A power authority, which would be more autonomous than the water department.
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