ANTHONY SOMMER / TSOMMER@STARBULLETIN.COM
Francis Valdez, left, Alex Duldulao, center, and Sam Bisarra have nearly a century of combined experience at Lihue Plantation. The three will lose their jobs when the last of the planation closes.
‘Last of the last’ LIHUE >> On Friday, a little more than a week before the last remnant of Lihue Plantation will close forever, three workers were standing around an ancient portable generator, grinning.
Lihue Plantation will close
forever a week from todayBy Anthony Sommer
tsommer@starbulletin.comThey had been working all day to get the generator's balky gasoline engine running and it finally had fired up and was purring like a kitten.
In the next shop, two workers were patching a leaky portable water tank with an arc welder.
In the next building, in the control room of the giant power plant, an operator was flipping switches and pushing buttons. The generator was on "hot standby," ready to kick in if any of the generators operated by the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative fail.
Every worker in the plant has at least 30 years' seniority. Every one is enormously proud of the work he does. And together they appeared to be in a collective state of denial.
The plant will go dark after Dec. 30 and Amfac/JMB's last 20 employees on the island will be laid off.
"These are the last of the last, the last of the Mohicans," said shop supervisor Dean Silva. "It seems like such a waste."
Silva said his story is simple and typical: graduate high school, get married, start a lifetime of work at Lihue Plantation. But for Silva that story is ending at age 48, long before he ever imagined it would.
The company closed both Lihue Plantation and the Kekaha Sugar Co. two years ago, ending a century and a half in the sugar business on Kauai.
The electricity generating system remained open in order to fulfill a long-term contract with Kauai Electric Co. The system was powered by bagasse -- the sawdust-like material remaining when sugar cane is processed -- purchased from Gay & Robinson, the only surviving sugar company on the island and one of only two in Hawaii.
A new gas turbine generator that went into service last summer has negated the need for the plant. Kauai Island Utility Co-op, which recently acquired Kauai Electric, agreed to let the contract with Amfac/JMB expire early.
"If there's a power outage, we can handle it. But not after next week," said Alvin Tanigawa, the chief engineer at the Lihue Plantation power plant.
He pointed to new generators that were installed at Lihue Plantation at the same time the sugar mill next door was being shut. They've never been used to their full 24 megawatt potential.
"This plant has been well maintained," said Tanigawa, who has worked 40 years at Lihue Plantation. "It's a shame to shut it down."
Gay & Robinson, which has derived part of its income from the sale of bagasse, has expressed an interest in moving the power plant to its west Kauai mill at Kaumakani and selling the electricity to the Kauai Island Utility Co-op.
Spokesmen for Gay & Robinson and Amfac/JMB said there are no negotiations being conducted between the two companies, but neither ruled out a future sale of plant equipment.
Under federal law, Kauai Island Utility Co-op is required to buy any electricity a private producer can provide. Bagasse-fueled power costs about 4 cents per kilowatt hour. Kauai consumers pay 24 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity, the highest rate of any regulated electric company in the United States.
But if the plant is to be reopened, it must be done fairly quickly, Tanigawa said.
"We hear rumors, but that's all. Kauai Island Utility Co-op has right of first refusal if the plant is sold. But we don't know if they'll exercise it.
"These big electric motors -- 200 horsepower, 400 horsepower -- never have been shut down. If they're allowed to go cold in this humid air, condensation will occur and eventually they will freeze up."
