PUC seeks bids to supply standard-offer electricity service

Courtesy / CMP The Maine Public Utilities Commission is seeking bids for supplying standard-offer electricity service in territories of both Central Maine Power Co. and Versant Power.

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By Staff

The Maine Public Utilities Commission is seeking bids to supply retail electricity standard-offer service for much of the state.

The commission has issued a request for proposals to serve all customers in the territories of Central Maine Power Co. and the Bangor Hydro District of Versant Power, as well as large commercial and industrial customers in Versant’s Maine Public District.

Other customer classes in the Maine Public District are served under a multiyear contract approved last year.

The contract up for bid will run one year beginning Jan. 1, and proposals are due Oct. 7.

Electricity customers in Maine receive standard offer service if they have not purchased supply from another retail supplier or through an aggregator. The PUC arranges for standard-offer service through periodic competitive bid processes.

CMP and Versant are Maine’s two largest electricity transmission and distribution utilities, which together serve customers throughout the state. Total electricity sales to their customers are approximately 11 million megawatt hours annually, of which about 52% are through standard-offer service.

“Standard-offer supply is a significant portion of customers’ electricity bills. We look forward to seeing competitive proposals that will keep overall rates as low as possible,” PUC Chairman Philip L. Bartlett II said in a news release last week.

Standard-offer prices have been 18% to 20% lower this year compared to last year reflecting electricity supply and demand conditions in New England and their impact on wholesale energy markets, Bartlett added.

The new standard-offer prices that result from the RFP process will be announced later this year, the release said.

The RFP and related materials are available here.

About Central Maine Power Co.

Central Maine Power Co., a subsidiary of AVANGRID Inc. (NYSE: AGR), is Maine’s largest electricity transmission and distribution utility. Established in 1899 and based in Augusta, CMP serves approximately 624,000 customers across 346 communities in central and southern Maine. It operates approximately 23,500 miles of distribution lines and 2,900 miles of transmission lines.

About Versant Power

Versant Power, formerly Emera Maine, is the state’s second-largest electric utility, delivering electricity to more than 159,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers across 10,400 square miles in five counties in eastern and northern Maine. Emera Maine was formed in 2010 from the merger of Bangor Hydro and Maine Public Service Co., both of which were subsidiaries of Emera Inc., a Halifax, Nova Scotia-based utility holding company.