Versant Power

An independent audit raised serious issues with the state's second-largest electric utility.

The power company's distribution rates will increase about 23%.

Versant Power projected Thursday afternoon that it would restore power to all customers by Saturday night at the latest. A majority of customers in Aroostook County should have their power back by Thursday night, the utility said.

Maine regulators rejected the company's request to exempt the aftermath of storms last year from service quality requirements.

Members of the Maine Public Utilities Commission expressed concerns over customer privacy and said that it should be up to law enforcement to identify suspected illegal activities.

Solar energy exclusively powered about 11,000 Versant Power customers in the Fort Kent region for a period of time last week — a first for the utility, and potentially among the first instances in Maine.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission says the new standard-offer rates for customers of CMP, and Versant customers in Aroostook County, are about 30% lower than this year's.

Critics of the Pine Tree Power campaign say the transition to a statewide public electric utility is impractical. But it has been done elsewhere.

The campaign committees representing Central Maine Power and Versant Power have spent a combined $17.4 million this year and have been funded exclusively by their parent companies, Avangrid and ENMAX, respectively.

Central Maine Power says it's unaffected by legislation to ban foreign government-owned entities from electioneering in ballot campaigns, but for months it's been lobbying against the effort.