Central Maine Power wants state regulators to approve a major five-year plan that would increase its annual spending by more than $420 million over five years.
The company argues it needs significant investment in infrastructure, personnel and equipment to maintain reliability in the face of increasingly severe storms and modernize Maine's aging grid.
But opponents including Maine Governor Janet Mills claim the proposal is too expensive for electric customers already burdened by high bills. The company's plan would spend about $1.5 billion, the governor said.
CMP's request "blatantly ignores the economic reality that Maine people face every day" especially seniors, small businesses and rural residents, Mills said in a press release.
"I recognize that investing in our grid to improve reliability is important, but this request is massive and unacceptable," the governor added.
The utility filed hundreds of pages of documents with the Public Utilities Commission Tuesday proposing five years of rate increases.
The proposal would increase residential customers' bills by about $35 a month by the fifth year, according to CMP. But the increase could be balanced by declining payments to the company for spending on storm recovery, it said.
The intent of the plan is to avoid future spending on expensive contractors and other costs to recover from increasingly damaging storms.
"Year-round, our electric grid is challenged by extreme heat in the summer and powerful storms in the winter," said CMP CEO Linda Ball in a press release.
"That’s why we’re planning to invest in a stronger, more resilient grid, built by a growing, Maine-based workforce trained right here in our state," Ball added.
The plan calls to hire 400 new employees including 200 new line workers, install hundreds of miles of covered wire to prevent power disruption from falling tree limbs, put in new poles and substations and even bury electric lines underground in some areas.
"Over the next five years, these targeted investments will not only enhance reliability but also provide greater financial stability and predictability for our customers," Ball said.
But Dan Burgess from the Governor's Energy Office said that the proposal also undermined the intent of a 2022 law that directed electric utilities to develop plans every five years to make a more reliable and affordable grid.
Those 10-year plans were supposed to be developed transparently with public participation, Burgess said. CMP is required to file its grid plan at the beginning of next year.
"That's what's required of the utilities so to put forward this unprecedented rate increase without even completing that we see as problematic," Burgess said.
CMP spokesperson Jon Breed said that although the company's rate proposal and the grid plan were related, "they are different things."
The grid plan "gives us a framework to address problems over time," Breed said. "However, in the short term the company and the grid still have immediate needs."
Public Advocate Heather Sanborn, who represents ratepayers interests, called the rate increase proposed by CMP "enormous."
"We need to ensure that electricity distribution costs don’t spiral out of control, especially as our state encourages people to electrify their homes and vehicles to meet climate goals," Sanborn said.
If approved, the rates would go into effect in October 2026, she added.
The Public Utilities Commission will hold two public witness hearings on the proposal in October.
The first is at 6 p.m. Oct. 14 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Freeport.
The second is at 6 p.m. Oct. 15 at the PUC headquarters in Hallowell.
