Molokai Considers Forming Electric Co-Op to Break HECO Monopoly

[mahina]

http://m.civilbeat.com/articles/2013/12/11/20637-molokai-considers-forming-its-own-electric-co-op-to-break-heco-monopoly/
By Sophie Cocke 12/11/2013

PF Bentley/Civil Beat

Residents on Molokai may follow in the footsteps of Kauai and buy their island’s electric utility, including its power grid, which could be entirely powered by alternative energy sources.
The push for energy autonomy is an outgrowth of frustration with Hawaiian Electric Co. that was repeatedly on display during protests against the Big Wind project over the last four years. It also highlights a deep independent streak on Molokai.

I Aloha Molokai, a community group that sprang up in opposition to the large wind farm, has met with officials from Maui Electric Co., HECO's subsidiary that operates the power grid on Molokai. The group has also conferred with the Maui mayor’s office and federal officials who administer a rural utility loan program to look into the plan’s feasibility. “My concern is that we pay exorbitant rates and I don’t trust HECO and MECO,” said Teri Waros, a member of I Aloha Molokai. “As an alternative to MECO, a co-op looks attractive.”

If Molokai takes this route it would join Kauai, which is the only island not served by Hawaiian Electric Co. Molokai, which is home to about 7,500 residents, pays some of the highest electricity rates in the state. Residents are currently paying 46 cents a kilowatt hour, which is four times the national average and nearly 40 percent more than customers pay on Oahu. Molokai residents say such exorbitant rates hurt them and weaken small businesses. What do you think?

MECO spokeswoman Kaui Awai-Dickson refused a phone interview with Civil Beat, saying that she would only respond to e-mailed questions. In a written message, she responded to some of them, explaining that the utility is open to offers. “With regards to discussions of a co-op, Hawaiian Electric/Maui Electric have always said we will consider formal defined proposals that are in the best interest of our customers and community,” she wrote. Many questions remain about the idea of Molokai taking control of its destiny on the energy front. Among the most relevant are whether creation of a power co-op would reduce rates and whether the island has the expertise to run and manage a utility.

More at the link.

[msongs]

1. HECO is an obsolete business model that needs replacing ASAP.....

it worked fine when Hawaii's only energy source was imported oil/gas. The HECO model is built around this imported source. Now there are many options, especially solar, which do not conform to HECO, which is a corporation whose primary obligation is to its shareholders, NOT to customers or citizens. HECO is doing everything it can to roadblock alternative energy and make it impossible to generate rooftop solar that benefits PEOPLE not the corporation. HECO needs to be taken over by the state or island governments and the shareholder model given the boot.

[hunter]

2. 7,500 residents??? That's big diesel engine territory.

The Navy retires people with that kind of expertise every day and I'm sure some of them would love to live on Molokai if Hawaiian Electric employees choose not stay on if residents buy the system.

It seems quite possible alternative energy schemes would not save any money. Storage systems are expensive and the need for back-up power, probably fossil fueled, does not go away.

It seems to me the system is small enough that a federal grant exploring the behavior of networks primarily using alternative energy might be a beneficial use of research money. (In this case the system might be solar, given the demonstrated opposition to wind power...)

As an aside, my wife's great aunt worked with the Franciscan sisters on Molokai. The Kalaupapa Colony is one of the two sites in the United States where a Roman Catholic Saint resided; it is the only single site where two Saints (Saint Damien and Saint Marianne) resided.