AUGUSTA, Maine - Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills has signed into law bills requiring electric utilities to provide more information to their customers. The laws require utilities to provide a 10-year history of rates to customers and to clearly display consumer assistance lines on billing statements. The laws allow the Public Utilities Commission to require corrections for misleading, deceptive or inaccurate information. The Portland Press Herald reports that the legislation was prompted by months of problematic bills issued by Central Maine Power Co.
CMP, which has more than 600,000 Maine customers, encountered chronic problems after installing a new billing system in October 2017. At one point, 97,000 customers received bills that were 50 percent higher than the previous winter.