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Kauai Island Utility Cooperative said in its annual membership meeting Wednesday that its revenue was down 8% year to date through June and that it is projecting a 10% decrease in sales for 2020.
“Measures taken to mitigate financial losses include reducing expenditures, restructuring debt, receiving a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan and filing for financial relief with the state Public Utilities Commission,” KIUC said in the virtual meeting on Zoom.
KIUC President and CEO David Bissell gave an update on the utility’s renewable progress and said KIUC led the state in renewable generation in 2019 with 56.6% of Kauai’s electricity coming from renewable resources.
With the deployment of the new AES solar-plus-battery facility at the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility later this year, and successful development of the hybrid solar/pumped storage hydro project on the Westside over the next four years, KIUC may be achieving 80% renewable generation well ahead of its own strategic goals and the state renewable mandate, Bissell said.
KIUC said its renewable mix consists of solar, biomass and hydro. The utility said solar makes up nearly two-thirds of that mix, and rooftop systems contribute one-third of the solar piece.
The co-op said utility-scale solar facilities, which replaced higher-cost diesel generation, saved members $3.8 million in 2019, amounting to about $50 per average residential member over the course of the year;
KIUC said it began running the grid on 100% renewables during midday in November, and between January and June its grid has run 857 hours on 147 different days at 100% renewable. That amounts to 20% of the total hours and 80% of the total days during that period, KIUC said.
The utility said its members used 2.1% more energy in 2019 than in 2018, while its revenue decreased by 4.8%. Its fossil fuel was reduced by 20%.
