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Utility Files Plans Regarding New Energy Billing Projects
On August 4th, the Maine PUC issued a procedural order scheduling a case conference to discuss the utility filings, including “changes proposed pursuant to LD1777.”
On August 1, 2025 Joint Hydropower Parties filed request for discovery and technical conference and on July 29, 2025, parties filed response to rate design proposals.
OPA “supports CMP’s proposal to expedite the implementation of LD 1777 to avoid a rate increase for many customers and to minimize the number of rate changes required,” and recommended an expedited schedule.
CMP and Versant filed stranded cost rate designs. CMP included plans to address: (1) LD1777, which, effective January 1, 2026 that: (i) “adjusts the compensation for tariff rate NEB projects in a manner that is expected to significantly reduce stranded cost expense for these projects”; (ii) “imposes monthly project charges for large kWh credit program NEB projects, which revenues will be used to offset stranded costs”; and (2) LD1792, which “imposes a new rate design for post-restructuring stranded costs that must be implemented no later than October 1, 2025,” that: (i) “consolidates rate classes across the two investor-owned utilities”; (ii) “re-allocates part of the revenue requirement from large commercial customers to other customer groups”, and (iii) “adjusts the fixed and volumetric allocations for the various rate classes.”
As background, the MEPUC opened this docket to investigate stranded cost rate design of post-restructuring costs, specifically alternate intraclass rate designs. This investigation follows on the final order in Docket No. 2023-00230, which found that “the rate impact analysis showed that the fixed charge impacted some larger rate classes dramatically, with low kWh usage customers within some classes paying much more than they would under volumetric recovery, and high kWh usage customers in some classes paying much less than they would under volumetric recovery.”
The MEPUC will use this proceeding to investigate changes to the current intraclass rate design for NEB and non-NEB post-restructuring costs through the stranded cost mechanism and alternative rate designs.
