Fuel prices drive up
electric bills on Kauai
LIHUE >> Chevron Hawaii has boosted the price of fuel for Kauai's electricity generators by 11 percent, the largest monthly increase in more than two decades.
The Kauai Island Utility Co-op said the increase will mean about a $5 hike in the average monthly residential fuel bill.
Kauai already has the highest regulated electric rates in the country.
The co-op, which bought the former Kauai Electric Co. two years ago, uses two types of fuels. About 60 percent of Kauai's electricity comes from diesel generators and 40 percent from a jet turbine, which burns naphtha. The 11 percent increase is the average for both fuels.
Alton Miyamoto, president and chief executive officer of the co-op, said it is the high highest one-month increase he has seen in more than 20 years with Kauai Electric and the cooperative.
The co-op has an "automatic pass-through" approved by the state Public Utilities Commission. Any increase from its supplier, Chevron Hawaii, is automatically passed on to customers.
The co-op said fuel use has dropped since the recent introduction of the turbine generator.
When the island used only diesel, the average residential customer used 37.7 gallons of fuel a month to produce the required electricity.
With the jet turbine, average residential usage dropped to 34.5 gallons.