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Last Updated: April 2007
01/07: The Maine Public Utilities Commission accepted bids on new standard offer energy rates for residential and small business customers of Central Maine Power Company (CMP) and Bangor Hydro-Electric Company (BHE). The rates, effective March 1, 2007, for CMP customers, were about 8.8 cents/kWh, and for BHE customers, about 9.0 cents/kWh. When combined with the CMP and BHE delivery charges, the rates would increase overall by about 1.7% and 2.7% for BHE and CMP customers, respectively.
Source: Maine Public Utilities Commission
http://www.maine.gov/tools/whatsnew/attach.php?id=28423&an=1
02/06: The New England Independent System Operator (New England ISO) reached a settlement agreement with state regulators, consumer groups, and energy companies over a multi-billion dollar rate hike proposed for the region. The state of Maine did not sign the agreement and the Public Utilities Commission stated that it was considering withdrawing from the New England ISO.
Source: Maine Public Utilities Commission
http://www.maine.gov/tools/whatsnew/attach.php?id=12503&an=1
12/04: Auction results showed almost a thirty percent increase in the electric standard offer price for residential and small commercial customers. The Public Utilities Commission attributed the sharp rise in auction results to the significantly higher costs associated with producing electricity in the New England region.
Source: Maine Public Utilities Commission
http://www.maine.gov/tools/whatsnew/attach.php?id=4792&an=1
12/02: The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) released a report, Standard Offer Study and Recommendation Regarding Service after March 1, 2005, to the state Legislature. In the report, the PUC recommended standard offer service remain available after March 1, 2005, under certain conditions. For medium and large nonresidential customers, the report proposed that standard offer service would continue only as a “last resort” service. In the small commercial and residential sectors, where competitive retail markets for electricity were not as fully developed as the large customer sectors, current standard offer service would continue to be offered to customers who do not choose an alternative energy supplier. Based on public interest, the PUC also recommended a “green” supply option for residential and small commercial customers.
03/02: New standard offer rates for customers in the Central Main Power Company, Bangor Hydro Electric Company, and Maine Public Service Company service territories went into effect on March 1, 2002. According to a PUC press release, medium and large commercial and industrial CMP and Bangor Hydro customers "(would) see the largest overall price decreases."
03/01: Upon termination of the bid process, the PUC ordered Central Maine Power to provide standard offer service from March 2001 to March 2002 for medium and large nonresidential customers and set the standard offer rates for these classes of customers. The PUC approved CMP contracts with wholesale suppliers to supply the power for the standard offer customers, and approved nonresidential standard offer rates ranging from 5.6 cents for off peak non summer to 14.6 cents for on peak summer.
10/00: The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) approved a 33 percent rate increase for the 107,000 customers who use Bangor Hydro's standard offer. The rate increase was requested by Bangor Hydro to pay for rising oil and natural gas costs. The average residential customer would pay about 6.1 cents/kWh compared to the 4.6 cents/kWh they were paying before the increase. The Commission said that it is possible that another increase would be needed if fuel costs continued to increase, but that increase would most likely be deferred until after winter.
10/00: The PUC issued a request for bids to provide service for Bangor Hydro, Maine Public Service, and Central Maine Power standard offer customers. The bidding process was revised from last year's, streamlining the process and giving bidders more flexibility in hopes of attracting better offers.
09/00: Statistics from the Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) showed that 26 percent of all electricity delivered by the State's three major utilities was being purchased from alternative suppliers. However, industrial customers are purchasing the bulk of that load. In contrast, 6 percent of residential and small commercial customers had switched providers, bringing the total number of residential and small commercial customers served by competitive providers to about 1,500 customers.
08/00: The PUC approved a transmission/distribution rate scheme for restructuring submitted by Maine Public Service Company and the Maine Office of the Public Advocate. The order separated MPS's overall T&D revenue requirements into a transmission component (T) under FERC jurisdiction and a distribution component (D) under PUC jurisdiction.
07/00: The PUC increased standard offer rates for Bangor-Hydro customers to 4.6 cents/kWh.
01/00: In 1999, the PUC finalized the rules necessary to implement electric restructuring by March 1, 2000. Companies were selected to provide standard offer service at reasonable prices for the majority of electricity consumers in Maine. Principles were established for setting rates, including stranded costs, for distribution and transmission utilities in the State. The three IOU utilities sold their generation assets.
10/99: The PUC rejected the bids received for standard offer service for Central Maine Power and Bangor Hydro territories, saying they were too high. Using three service bids that were conditionally approved for Maine Public Service for a new ceiling, and revising some technical rules, a second round of bidding would be scheduled for November 8. In this way, the standard offer providers were scheduled to be selected by December 1.
05/99: The PUC issued a schedule for suppliers to offer standard service when retail competition was scheduled to begin in March 2000. Standard service price would be set through a bid process, rather than a predetermined price, as in other states.
01/99: Maine consumers were scheduled to begin seeing itemized bills in January 1999 that separate the costs of power generation from delivery. The restructuring law requires unbundled billing by January 1, 1999.
12/98: The PUC was scheduled to begin a consumer education program in January 1999 to prepare the public for retail access and unbundled billing.
11/98: Central Maine Power's sale of its non-nuclear generating assets to FPL Group was approved by regulators.
10/98: PP&L Global reached an agreement with Bangor Hydro to purchase 100 percent of it hydro plants and its interest in an oil-fired plant, totaling 89.2 MW for $89 million. Approval by the Maine PUC and FERC were still to be determined.
05/98: Bangor Hydro announced the schedule for bids on its divestiture of generation assets. Final bids were due 8/7/98. Maine Yankee nuclear plant would also be offered for sale.
05/98: The PUC approved Central Maine Power's corporate reorganization into a holding company, CMP Group, Inc., and 10 subsidiaries as it prepared for retail competition. Central Maine Power would remain the core business group offering distribution and transmission services. A new unit, Maine Power, would market electricity.
05/98: The PUC adopted a requirement that beginning January 1, 1999, utilities must issue bills showing "unbundled" charges for generation and distribution, rules for consumer education, and standard offer service for all consumers when competition was scheduled to begin on March 1, 2000.
04/98: Central Maine Power's plan to divest its hydro, fossil-fuel, and biomass generation was approved by the PUC.
05/97: Legislation Docket 1804 was enacted. The law would allow retail competition by March 2000 and, for large investor-owned utilities, featured a market share cap of 33 percent in old service areas, a requirement for divestiture of generation assets by March 2000, and the nation's most aggressive renewables portfolio, requiring 30 percent of generation to be from renewable energy sources (including hydroelectric).
12/96: The PUC issued a plan requiring utility functional unbundling, divestiture of generation assets by March 2000, and retail competition by 2000.