Oahu electric bills remain steady

Electricity bills for the typical Oahu residential customer changed little this month.

Hawaiian Electric Co. said the typical 600-kilowatt-hour bill for Oahu residential customers is $158.37 in November, compared with $158.28 in October.

The effective rate for electricity on Oahu is 24.87 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared with 24.86 cents in October.

Elsewhere in the state:

» Rates for Maui customers rose to 30.06 cents per kilowatt-hour this month from October’s 29.29 cents. The typical Maui bill rose by $4.63 to $188.87.

» Big Island residential rates rose to 34.92 cents from last month’s 33.74 cents. The typical bill rose by $7.09 to $220.62.

» On Kauai, the rate rose to 35.71 cents per kilowatt-hour from 34.32 cents in October. 

Go! Mokulele traffic decreases 5.8%

Go! Mokulele’s passenger traffic declined 5.8 percent in October from the year-earlier month even though its load factor, or percentage of seats filled, rose 2.94 percentage points to 67.75 percent from 64.81 percent.

The interisland carrier operated by Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group Inc. transported 58,143 people last month compared with 61,746 a year ago.

Revenue passenger miles, or one paying passenger transported one mile, fell 9.1 percent to 7.5 million from 8.2 million while available seat miles, or one seat transported one mile, declined 13.1 percent to 11 million from 12.7 million.

Wholesale Unlimited gets solar system

Snack food maker Wholesale Unlimited Inc. has installed a 113-kilowatt solar power generating system on the room of its Waipahu facility that will save the company an estimated $40,000 a year in electricity costs.

Over the next 30 years, the photovoltaic system will replace more than 9,600 barrels of oil that otherwise would have been burned for energy, and prevent about 4,543 tons of carbon dioxide emissions from entering Hawaii’s air, said Marc Honma, vice president of Wholesale Unlimited.

The system’s 495 PV panels will generate an average of 521 kilowatt-hours of electricity per day, said Marc Unowitz, an energy consultant with Sunetric, which designed and installed the system. Including tax incentives, the system should pay for itself sometime in the fourth year of operation, Unowitz said.

Maui firm receives cancer grant

Functional Nutriments LLC, a Maui-based company that produces a dietary supplement for dogs, has won a $244,479 federal grant to research its formula for human cancers.

The company’s product helps dogs unlock a natural biological process in the body, known as apoptosis, which breaks up accumulated cells that should be eliminated for normal health, according to the product’s description.

The grant is part of a $1 billion program overseen by the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which offers funding to small businesses creating medical therapies.

The program’s goal is to reduce health costs, create jobs and significantly advance cures for cancer within the next three decades.

ON THE MOVE

The International Association of Business Communicators Hawaii has named its officers: Lee Tokuhara, president and vice president of finance; Patrick Williams and Darcie Scharfenstein, vice presidents of programs; Kris Tanahara and Elizabeth Ahana, vice presidents of awards programming; Natalie Lewis and Jasmin Rodriguez, vice presidents of communications; Kapono Ryan, vice president of membership; Darren Pai, vice president of administration and special projects; and senior advisers Arnold Kishi, Lance Tanaka and Alan Tang.

CB Richard Ellis has hired James "Kimo" Greenwell as a senior associate. He will be joining the Wendell Brooks III team, specializing in retail and investment properties, corporate advisory services and corporate strategic planning for clients. His previous experience includes leasing manager for MW Group, sales associate at 1250 Oceanside Partners in Kailua-Kona and Realtor associate at Coldwell Banker.

North Hawaii Community Hospital has hired Kerry Howell as vice president, development and marketing, effective Dec. 6. She has more than 25 years of fundraising, communications, marketing and business development experience, including vice president for advancement at Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Sciences, and various development and leadership positions at University of Washington and Washington State University.

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Star-Advertiser staff