Maui County Delegation Meets with Municipal Utilities at National Conference

News Release from County of Maui, May 5, 2015

Wailuku, Maui - In order to further explore the possibility of Maui County running their own power utility, a delegation from Maui County is heading to Minneapolis, Minnesota to attend the American Public Power Association (APPA) National Conference.

The APPA is a collection of more than 2,000 community-owned electric utilities, serving more than 48 million people or about 14 percent of the nation's electricity consumers. The public power utilities are operated by local governments to provide communities with reliable, responsive, not-for-profit electric service and are directly accountable to the people they serve through local elected or appointed officials.

The APPA's 2015 National Conference is the association's largest event of the year and an opportunity to connect with hundreds of public power leaders and policymakers from across the nation. The APPA invited Maui County to their conference after hearing how the county wants to go 100 percent renewable, and put out a Request for Proposals (RFP) to study the current utility system.

The Maui County delegation consists of members of Corporation Counsel and the Department of Management, lead by Managing Director Keith Regan.

"We're very excited to talk to other municipalities about how they are managing their own utilities, what the challenges are and how their models could benefit our community," Regan said. "The fact that there will be so many people here who have already taken the steps to become more energy independent presents a huge learning opportunity for us. Hopefully we come back with some great ideas and make some important connections."

Last month the Mayor's Office of Economic Development posted the RFP over concerns about the looming NextEra/Hawaiian Electric Industries merger before the public utilities commission and how it will affect area residents and businesses. The study will look at alternative forms of ownership and the alternative utility business models for Maui County's electric utility company.

For more information about the study please contact the Mayor's Office of Economic Development at 270-710. To find out more about the American Public Power Association go to www.publicpower.org.

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IM: Maui delegation in Minnesota to study government owned electric utilities