Kaua'i electricity rate hike averted

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser KauaÎi Bureau

PUHI, Kaua'i — Kaua'i's power utility, which has some of the highest electricity rates in the nation, won't increase those rates as expected in 2002, because of anticipated savings in power purchases.

Kaua'i Electric said the state Public Utilities Commission granted it permission to temporarily keep fuel savings it expects to achieve in buying electricity from a new, efficient plant being planned by Kaua'i Power Partners.

The plant, which will burn naphtha, a petroleum distillate, is expected to be considerably more fuel-efficient than the diesel and other oil-fired plants the utility now uses as its primary sources for power generation.

Kaua'i Electric has called on Kaua'i Power Partners to have its plant in operation by next July 1.

The new plant is designed to produce 26.4 megawatts from what is called an advanced steam-injected combustion turbine.

The PUC will allow Kaua'i Electric to continue to assess customers its normal fuel adjustment clause, which is based on lower-efficiency power generators. The savings the company will achieve will offset costs it would have had to pay in association with the establishment of the new power plant.

The state consumer advocate agreed to the arrangement, concluding it is in the public interest because of the urgency associated with the closing of Lihu'e Plantation and its termination of a service agreement to provide 14 megawatts to the utility grid.

Kaua'i Power Partners is an independent company that will build its power plant on utility land mauka of Lihu'e.