Kaua’i Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC), the electric utility company which serves Hawaii’s island of Kaua’i, recently received an award for excellence and innovation in energy.
The Association of Energy Engineers’ Western US Region presented the award to the co-op’s energy services supervisor, Scott Sato, at the AEE World Energy Conference and Expo, held in Nashville on 24 September. The co-op was recognised for “outstanding accomplishments in developing, organising, managing and implementing an outstanding institutional energy management plan”.
Last year, 57.95% of KIUC’s generated energy was renewable, with 38.1% coming from solar, 12% from hydropower and 7.8% from biomass fuel.
This make KIUC the state leader in renewables for the fifth year in a row and enables it to offer Hawaii’s lowest residential electricity rates from May 2022 to July 2024.
“This is an incredible accomplishment, considering when KIUC became a co-operative in 2002 our rates were 70% higher than those on [neighbouring island and home to the state’s capital] Oahu,” said KIUC president and CEO David Bissell in the co-op’s recent annual report.
Related: KIUC achieves 57.9% renewable generation for 2023
KIUC points to a number of factors that have contributed to the co-op’s financial stability, including strategic transition to renewables, low-cost loans from the US government, reduced staffing levels and federal reimbursements for disaster-related losses.
The co-op was nominated for the award by AEE’s Hawaii Chapter for its “dedication and hard, innovative work”, said Russ Koehler, president of the chapter.
KIUC is one of Hawaii’s two electric utilities. Formed in 2002, it is one of the United States’ newest electric co-ops, and is owned by 29,000 residential member-owners and 4,000 commercial member-owners. The co-op aims to be 100% fuelled by renewable sources by 2033.
AEE is a nonprofit professional society with over 17,000 members in more than 125 countries, with the aim of promoting the interests of those engaged in the energy industry through networking, energy awareness, education, training, professional certification and recognition.
