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On May 26, 2026 Maine PUC presiding officers overseeing the time of use rates (TOU) on an opt out basis for electricity standard offer service issued a procedural order ruling denying the Office of the Public Advocate (OPA) motion to stay the proceeding that was filed on May 13, 2026.

The Motion was assented to by the Maine Department of Energy Resources, Efficiency Maine Trust, Conservation Law Foundation, Acadia Center, and the Natural Resources Council of Maine.

OPA’s motion stated that, “time and expense to collect and analyze this data may be reduced or avoided altogether if the parties were to reach agreement on an alternative approach to implementing and increasing customer adoption of time-varying rate designs to shape residential load.”

OPA’s motion further stated that,” the stay should be granted to “reduce the expense of investigating the TOU Straw proposals and increase the likelihood that consumers will adopt and benefit from the implementation of time-varying rates in the short, medium, and long-term.” Id. at 3. The Motion also describes possible solutions or outcomes that may be discussed during settlement.”

The presiding officers said that the “Commission is open to receiving stipulations of some or all of the issues present in cases pending before it, and this case is no different. However, it is not the usual practice to stay proceedings to allow discussions to occur until there appears a likelihood that agreement will be reached. That is not yet the case here.”

“Therefore, the Presiding Officers will continue with the iterative process of providing the utilities the opportunity to question and understand the various straw proposals sufficiently to allow them to prepare meaningful cost estimates”