On behalf of all of us at KIUC, I extend my warmest mahalo to our members who worked with us in such a positive way to address the issues we faced following the fault at the Kapaia Power Station and the temporary loss of our first- and third-largest generators.
These units are back available, and our weather pattern has returned to a more normal sunny baseline, so we no longer need to request conservation efforts from our membership.
I am often asked “when will KIUC decommission its diesel-fueled power plants and shift completely to renewable energy?” The answer is: probably not for a long time. Absent a breakthrough in technology we will need to maintain a significant fleet of conventional generators to cover our needs during abnormal weather patterns: be it a hurricane, extended periods of rain, or other natural occurring events.
As a stand-alone grid on the most isolated land mass on the planet, the challenge of delivering reliable power 24 hours a day, seven days week is enormous; but it must be met.
KIUC has made great strides in achieving the State of Hawaii mandate of 100 percent renewable generation by 2045. We are, in fact, currently leading the state and much of the nation in renewable penetration at 55 percent.
Kauai is reaping many benefits from the progress we’re making. At the same time we’re learning that it’s imperative to maintain a diverse portfolio of power generation sources – both conventional and renewable – to reliably meet our members’ energy needs.
This was never clearer than during last week’s islandwide outage and the days that followed.
KIUC has 209.9 megawatts of generating capacity, more than half of which is renewable: a combination of solar (utility scale and distributed), biomass and hydropower. So when two of our three largest diesel generating units failed, why didn’t renewables pick up the slack? With 118 megawatts of generating capacity, our renewables should have been able to carry Kauai’s 75 megawatt peak load.
The answer is as simple as lack of sunshine. The bulk of our renewable generating capacity available on demand comes from battery energy storage systems (BESS) at the Tesla and AES Lawai solar facilities.
On a sunny day, while renewable energy sources are often producing enough power to meet 90 percent, or more, of the island’s power needs, these BESS systems are busy storing more than 150 megawatt hours of electricity for later use.
The problem is when the sun doesn’t shine these solar energy resources provide minimal output, and our hydropower and biomass facilities can meet only a fraction of our load.
So while we strive on a daily basis to maximize our use of clean, renewable power – which by the way is less expensive than diesel — we must also face the reality that when the sun doesn’t shine or the water doesn’t flow, our renewables need a backup.
Reliable and low cost renewable generating resource options that do not rely on solar are limited for our island.
We are working hard to develop renewable projects based on available technology options, such as the West Kauai pumped storage hydropower project that will bring more hydropower energy and storage capability to our island. We also must not move backwards by taking existing hydropower generators out of service as some suggest.
No one is really sure how the challenge of moving completely off of fossil fuels while maintaining reliability standards will be met. KIUC is committed to meeting the state’s mandate and has set our own goal of reaching 70 percent renewable by 2030. Fortunately for KIUC and our member-owners, we are moving quickly and learning valuable lessons along the way.
In the meantime we’re keeping all of our resources available in order to make sure you stay powered.
KIUC is a member-owned cooperative serving 33,000 customer accounts on the island of Kauai. Formed in 2002 and governed by a nine-member, elected board of directors, KIUC is one of 930 electric co-ops serving more than 36 million members in 47 states. KIUC has surged from less than 10 percent renewable generation in 2010 to more than 50 percent renewable in 2019, and leads the nation in energy storage watts per customer.
•••
David Bissell is president and chief executive officer, Kauai Island Utility Cooperative.
What would it take to achieve 100% renewable power in 5 years? From your letter, it sounds like the addition of more BESS systems would be the key. We have enough sunshine on a regular basis to provide enough power for the Island if you could add additional storage; enough storage to power the Island for 60 days of no sun. As battery technology advances, it seems like acquiring more and better storage is the best investment for KIUC. Oh, and make sure you have back-ups for your back-ups. Always have at least 2 of every part needed to operated every single power source you own on hand in case of a failure so you don’t have to wait for parts to be flown or shipped in.
There must be some way of using the power of the waves without endangering ocean life. Huge source of power that just never quits. Isn’t there an inventors’ club on the island, something like that, which could jointly tackle that problem?
There are new nuclear generators being designed that do not need water containment systems, are very efficient, and are designed for smaller communities such as ours. They could be used as a back-up system to our photo-voltaic capability with no need to continually purchase fuel. Since their output is available 24 hrs a day no matter what the situation KIUC should at least look into the possibility of using one. Our current generators are rapidly ageing out of their useful life as is witnessed by the recent disruption.