Kauai Island Utility Cooperative’s board has unanimously approved a tentative agreement to buy power from a new hydroelectric facility to be built by Gay & Robinson Inc. on the Olokele Ditch.
Gay & Robinson said it plans to build a 6-megawatt plant below its existing 1.3-megawatt plant on the Olokele Ditch. The ditch was built in 1904.
The terms of the proposed contract between KIUC and Gay & Robinson are confidential and subject to approval by the state Public Utilities Commission. G&R hopes to have the new system operational by 2019.
"KIUC is very pleased to be working with G&R on the first new, large-scale hydropower plant built on Kauai in 80 years," David Bissell, president and chief executive officer of KIUC, said Thursday. "With this agreement, we’re nearly at our strategic goal of using renewables to generate 50 percent of our energy and well ahead of the 2023 deadline we set.
"This project will reduce our oil consumption by about 1.4 million gallons per year and further insulate Kauai’s energy supply from the volatile world market."
KIUC currently purchases electricity from the existing G&R hydro plant, which was built in 1920 to supply power to the plantation. When completed, the two G&R hydropower projects would produce 5 percent of the electricity consumed annually on Kauai.
In another development related to its renewable-energy efforts, KIUC is pursuing a pumped storage system on state land on Kauai’s west side. The system would use low-cost solar power to pump water uphill to a reservoir during the day. At night the water would be released from the reservoir to flow downhill and turn turbines to create electricity.
The system could meet about 13 percent of Kauai’s annual energy demand.
KIUC has obtained access to two potential pumped storage sites from the state Agribusiness Development Corp., the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, enabling the cooperative to conduct detailed technical studies.
An informational briefing on the pumped storage project will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Waimea Theatre.
