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KIUC weighs in on federal energy proposals
By KIUC staff – Special to The Garden Island
The average home electricity consumer used a remarkable 17 percent less power in April than they did a year earlier.
The unprecedented drop from an average of 520 kilowatt hours for the month to 430 kilowatt-hours — and the resulting drop in revenues for the Kaua‘i Island Utility Coooperative — are just two of the crucial issues facing Kaua‘i’s member-owned electric utility.
The co-op is also fighting proposals in Congress that would hike residents’ power costs and fail to recognize Kaua‘i’s successes in alternative power generation.
Congress is considering a number of pieces of legislation that will have direct impact on the wallets of Kaua‘i residents.
Several of these measures deal with renewable energy, energy efficiency and climate change.
KIUC executives and board members were in Washington, D.C., in May for meetings on the legislation. They met with representatives of other electric co-ops through the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, as well as with members of Hawai’i’s Congressional delegation.
Their goal: To ensure that new federal laws protect the financial interests of KIUC members. KIUC President Randy Hee and Board Chair Phil Tacbian led the Kaua‘i contingent, which also included Board members Dennis Esaki, David Iha and Allan Smith, engineering department manager Mike Yamane and regulatory staffer Wanda Kabutan.
KIUC is committed to reducing its use of fossil fuels and moving aggressively toward more use of renewables, but is concerned about proposed federal legislation that would limit its flexibility in crafting solutions that work best for Kaua‘i.
“Some legislation would not count hydroelectric power as renewable energy — but for Kaua‘i, the old plantation hydroplants, and Gay & Robinson’s proposed new plant, are a key part of our energy picture. Reducing our flexibility could mean higher rates,” said Hee.
Legislation nearing approval in both the U.S. House and the Senate, when tallying renewable energy (in the Renewable Electricity Standard, also known as a Renewable Portfolio Standard) would count wind, solar, geothermal, marine power, biomass and landfill gas, but would not count all existing hydroelectric plants. Some language would help small utilities like Kaua‘i’s by exempting them from some requirements.
KIUC officials argued for allowing small utilities more flexibility in defining what’s renewable and what’s not. For instance, they would like aggressive efforts at energy efficiency to count toward the renewable standard calculation.
On another front, environmental groups and utility executives alike agree that efficiency is a key component of any modern energy strategy.
KIUC joined the more than 900 electric cooperatives in the NRECA in urging Congress to extend energy efficiency tax credits for consumers, to increase federal support of advanced energy technology and to back a national energy efficiency model building code.
“Kaua‘i consumers already use less electrical power than the vast majority of consumers in Hawai‘i and across the nation. They should get credit for that, and any further efficiency improvements they make,” said Tacbian.
The U.S. House proposed that utilities prove each year that they are increasing energy efficiency over the previous years.
KIUC worries that the legislation doesn’t give utilities credit if they’ve already made big moves in efficiency, and that it could force expensive investments to meet the standard that will drive up power costs.
Here is the recommendation of the NRECA, which opposes an EERS: “Instead of forcing a one-size-fits-all solution... Congress should encourage the development of new energy efficiency technologies and design incentives that match the actions utilities and their consumers can take, alone or in concert, to increase efficiency.”
Glenn English, chief executive officer of the NRECA, said that when the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (HR 2454) came out of the house Energy and Commerce Committee recently, it had improved significantly from what co-op officials were seeing earlier, but still had issues.
“The renewable energy provisions have been improved significantly in the bill as have the efficiency provisions,” English said. But some parts of the bill, supported by large investor-owned utilities, do not treat smaller electric coop consumers fairly, he said.
For more information on the legislation and what KIUC and the NRECA are doing on it, see the NRECA website at www.nreca.coop/, or to see the entire 932-page bill, see energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/20090515/hr2454.pdf.
Questions? Comments? E-mail info@kiuc.coop or call 246-4383.
The unprecedented drop from an average of 520 kilowatt hours for the month to 430 kilowatt-hours — and the resulting drop in revenues for the Kaua‘i Island Utility Coooperative — are just two of the crucial issues facing Kaua‘i’s member-owned electric utility.
The co-op is also fighting proposals in Congress that would hike residents’ power costs and fail to recognize Kaua‘i’s successes in alternative power generation.
Congress is considering a number of pieces of legislation that will have direct impact on the wallets of Kaua‘i residents.
Several of these measures deal with renewable energy, energy efficiency and climate change.
KIUC executives and board members were in Washington, D.C., in May for meetings on the legislation. They met with representatives of other electric co-ops through the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, as well as with members of Hawai’i’s Congressional delegation.
Their goal: To ensure that new federal laws protect the financial interests of KIUC members. KIUC President Randy Hee and Board Chair Phil Tacbian led the Kaua‘i contingent, which also included Board members Dennis Esaki, David Iha and Allan Smith, engineering department manager Mike Yamane and regulatory staffer Wanda Kabutan.
KIUC is committed to reducing its use of fossil fuels and moving aggressively toward more use of renewables, but is concerned about proposed federal legislation that would limit its flexibility in crafting solutions that work best for Kaua‘i.
“Some legislation would not count hydroelectric power as renewable energy — but for Kaua‘i, the old plantation hydroplants, and Gay & Robinson’s proposed new plant, are a key part of our energy picture. Reducing our flexibility could mean higher rates,” said Hee.
Legislation nearing approval in both the U.S. House and the Senate, when tallying renewable energy (in the Renewable Electricity Standard, also known as a Renewable Portfolio Standard) would count wind, solar, geothermal, marine power, biomass and landfill gas, but would not count all existing hydroelectric plants. Some language would help small utilities like Kaua‘i’s by exempting them from some requirements.
KIUC officials argued for allowing small utilities more flexibility in defining what’s renewable and what’s not. For instance, they would like aggressive efforts at energy efficiency to count toward the renewable standard calculation.
On another front, environmental groups and utility executives alike agree that efficiency is a key component of any modern energy strategy.
KIUC joined the more than 900 electric cooperatives in the NRECA in urging Congress to extend energy efficiency tax credits for consumers, to increase federal support of advanced energy technology and to back a national energy efficiency model building code.
“Kaua‘i consumers already use less electrical power than the vast majority of consumers in Hawai‘i and across the nation. They should get credit for that, and any further efficiency improvements they make,” said Tacbian.
The U.S. House proposed that utilities prove each year that they are increasing energy efficiency over the previous years.
KIUC worries that the legislation doesn’t give utilities credit if they’ve already made big moves in efficiency, and that it could force expensive investments to meet the standard that will drive up power costs.
Here is the recommendation of the NRECA, which opposes an EERS: “Instead of forcing a one-size-fits-all solution... Congress should encourage the development of new energy efficiency technologies and design incentives that match the actions utilities and their consumers can take, alone or in concert, to increase efficiency.”
Glenn English, chief executive officer of the NRECA, said that when the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (HR 2454) came out of the house Energy and Commerce Committee recently, it had improved significantly from what co-op officials were seeing earlier, but still had issues.
“The renewable energy provisions have been improved significantly in the bill as have the efficiency provisions,” English said. But some parts of the bill, supported by large investor-owned utilities, do not treat smaller electric coop consumers fairly, he said.
For more information on the legislation and what KIUC and the NRECA are doing on it, see the NRECA website at www.nreca.coop/, or to see the entire 932-page bill, see energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/20090515/hr2454.pdf.
Questions? Comments? E-mail info@kiuc.coop or call 246-4383.
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Related headlines
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Kauaibrad wrote on Jun 22, 2009 10:18 AM:
I find it interesting that as KIUC members take early action on energy conservation that that is somehow a "crucial issue" or revenue problem for KIUC. All of KIUC's and the state's strategic plans for dealing with "clean energy" have an energy efficiency and conservation component that is almost 30% of needed fossil fuels reduced use going forward. So why should this be a problem for KIUC? Their members are way ahead of KIUC's Board of Directors and staff on this. The members are doing what needs to be done because the Board is not.
Furthermore, why is KIUC wasting it's time and money about whether hydroelectric is classified as renewable or not at the federal level. Right now KIUC is not actively developing a new hydro project anyway. Any new hydro project would be many years in the future because nothing solid is being actively pursued now.
I also find it interesting that KIUC has put out so much PR to their members about their proposed base rate increase which would be relatively minor and almost nothing about a proposed new $75 million dollar fossil fuel generator (GenX) that they would like to commit to in the near term. Their information and assumptions on this GenX fossil fuel generator rely upon information in an IRP document that was rejected by the PUC, an IRP process that the PUC told them recently to pursue no further.
KIUC's Board and senior staff need to worry less about lobbying and taking junkets to Washington, DC, and more about taking active steps toward renewable energy and conservation that their members are already doing. "