07/08: The Maine Public Utilities Commission accepted bids on new standard
offer energy prices for medium and large commercial and industrial customers
of Central Maine Power Company (CMP) and Bangor Hydro-Electric Company (BHE).
The prices are effective September 1, 2008, and extend for six months. The
new standard offer prices apply only to customers that have not made their
own electricity supply arrangements. For CMP’s medium business customers,
standard offer prices will increase by 23%, and for CMP’s large business
customers, standard offer prices will increase by 32%. For BHE’s medium
business customers prices will increase by 21% and for large business customers,
prices will increase by just under 20%.
Source: Maine Public Utilities Commission
http://www.maine.gov/mpuc/
01/08: The Maine PUC (PUC) today accepted bids on new standard offer energy
prices for residential and small business customers of Central Maine Power
Company (CMP) and Bangor Hydro-Electric Company (BHE). The bids are for 33%
of the load of these customers, and when combined with prices secured in prior
years, standard offer prices, effective March 1, 2008, will be about 9.97 cents
per kilowatt hour for CMP customers, and about 10.05 cents cents/kWh for BHE
customers.
Source: Maine Public Utilities Commission
http://www.maine.gov/mpuc/
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.
