Central Maine Power customers will pay more on their monthly bills starting July 1.
State utility regulators approved a series of rate changes earlier this week. For residential CMP customers, bills will go up about 8%, or $10.29 per month, according to a spokesperson with the Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC).
The standard offer price was also reduced slightly. The average customers using 550 kWh per month who chose the standard offer price will see their monthly bills increase by $9.19, the PUC said.
Overall, the changes reflect a roughly 27% increase in distribution rates for residential customers and are designed to cover the costs of outages caused by major storms in recent years.
Regulators say they will soon begin soliciting ideas on ways to potentially harden the electrical grid and balance affordability as storms grow more frequent and intense due to climate change.
Under a recent settlement agreement involving CMP and the Office of the Public Advocate, the utility must identify ways to prevent storm outages from happening in the first place.
The PUC is expected to consider additional rate changes for both CMP and Versant customers next week.
