LIHUE — Kauai Island Utility Cooperative is looking to pay developers on Kauai for the renewable energy they generate for the KIUC grid and put out a request for proposals Friday.
The RFP is for developers who want to build a renewable energy facility, for example a solar farm, which would then provide power to KIUC.
“The opportunity for people to subscribe will come later once we have a successful response to the RFP,” said KIUC spokeswoman Beth Tokioka. “At that time, we would open it up for customers and subscribers to the program.”
It’s called the community-based, renewable-energy program (CBRE), and the goal is to allow customers to get compensation for participating in eligible renewable energy projects that provides electricity and electric grid services to KIUC.
“If successful, this program will provide another option for our members to obtain renewable energy without having to locate solar panels on their property or to purchase all their energy from the utility company,” said KIUC’s President and Chief Executive Officer David Bissell.
It’s for someone who cannot install solar panels on their residence because of their location, building type, access to the electric grid or other impediments, according to KIUC.
Criteria to be in the program is that the facility generating power can’t be less than 250 kilowatts (kW) in size, but the request for proposals states more than one generating facility on one parcel of land can be
considered a single generating
facility.
Other qualifications include the need to have a smart meter and the ability to self-install renewable distributed energy resource facility and has access to the benefits of that on-site, renewable-energy generation.
There are two different rates for each eligible renewable-energy project, the CBRE subscription rate and the CBRE unsubscribed rate.
The CBRE subscription rate applies to the part of the capacity that’s purchased or subscribed to by participants in the CBRE program, and the unsubscribed rate applies to the capacity that hasn’t been purchased or subscribed to.
The minimum rate CBRE program participants will be getting for their extra power is 11 cents per kilowatt hour received by KIUC for Class 1, projects and eight cents per kilowatt hour received for Class 2 projects.
Class 1 projects generate at least 85 percent of total output each calendar month between the hours of 4 p.m. and 9 a.m., outside the peak period. Any other eligible projects fall into the Class 2 bracket.
The subscription rate won’t exceed 19 cents/kWh, and is a weighted average of total program capacity that’s purchased or subscribed to and the total capacity of all the eligible renewable energy projects in service.
“It’s definitely another way for those who meet the eligibility requirements to get involved (in renewable-energy generation),” Tokioka said. “If successful, this program will provide another option for our members to obtain renewable energy without having to locate solar panels on their property.”
While the first phase of this program is aimed at developers, KIUC says the goal is to bring subscribers on board as well, eventually.
“Given the timeline, KIUC doesn’t expect any movement on the subscriber side of it until early next year,” Tokioka said.
For interested developers, the deadline to submit an intent to respond is Aug. 31. A pre-bid question and answer and information meeting will be scheduled no later than Oct. 1, and then bid selection will occur no later than Dec. 3.
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Jessica Else, environment reporter, can be reached at 245-0452 or at jelse@thegardenisland.com.
