Businesses and homeowners on Kauai that generate their own electricity from photovoltaic systems and other renewable sources would be able to sell power back to the electric company under a pilot program being considered by the state Public Utilities Commission.

The program would help bring Kauai up to speed with Oahu and other jurisdictions around the country that have embraced "net energy metering" as a way to encourage the use of eligible renewable energy electricity generators by residential and commercial customers.

Net energy metering applies to solar, wind, biomass or hydroelectric generating facilities, or a hybrid system of two or more of those technologies. NEM does not cover solar water heating systems.

The Kauai Island Utility Cooperative approved the NEM pilot project at a special board meeting Oct. 14 and yesterday submitted the plan to the PUC. It has the backing of the state consumer advocate, the Hawaii Renewable Energy Association and the Hawaii Solar Energy Association.

KIUC officials said the pilot program would be used to gauge customer interest in net energy metering and analyze the financial impact on its customers.

If the program gets PUC approval, KIUC will accept applications on a first come, first served basis for three years, or until 3 megawatts of KIUC's electrical generation capacity is reached.

Customers would be paid 20 cents per kilowatt hour for any excess electricity they sell back to the utility. When they don't generate sufficient power to supply their own needs, they will pay regular rates for electricity from KIUC.

Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. in January brought online a 1,500-panel photovoltaic system at its research center on Kauai.

Cindy Goldstein, Pioneer's business and community outreach manager in Hawai'i, said the company would welcome an opportunity to further cut its energy costs.

"The solar panels were part of our substantiality goals and we will do everything we can to work with the utility to reduce our rates," she said. "Increasing suspensibility is a corporate-wide goal for us."

Of the 3 megawatts of generating capacity, 2 megawatts would be reserved for facilities from 50 kilowatts to 200 kilowatts of generating power. The remaining 1 me- gawatt would be set aside for facilities less than 50 kilowatts. Half of that would be reserved for systems of 10 kilowatts or smaller, with the remaining 50 percent allocated to systems above 10 kilowatts to 50 kilowatts.

Hawaiian Electric Co. already makes net energy metering programs available to its customers on Oahu, Maui and the Big Island.