Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine

How Ironic, Wind and Solar Developers Protest Paying for Net Energy Billing

The Maine PUC case no. 2022-00160 changes how CMP and Versant will bill electric customers for Net Energy Billing costs the utilities incur. For the first time, customers who acquire power directly from transmission and sub transmission rate classes (having connecting line(s) directly to substations versus power from the distribution lines), will be expected to pay their fair share of NEB.

Note: Residential and commercial rate classes obtain power from distribution lines and pay for NEB costs through a fixed charge (i.e public policy charge) on the delivery portion of their bills. This charge is independent of how many kilowatt hours a customer consumes. Every customer pays the same, proportional to rate class calculations.

So, according to CMP, the residential class represents 44% of kilowatt-hour load on the system and 44% of NEB costs are paid by the 582,268 customers through the service, fixed or public policy charge (three names for the same item). Small and medium commercial class accounts for 30% of the kilowatt-hour load the 74,487 customers pay equally by service charge for NEB costs.

The PUC is now assessing NEB costs to large/industrial customers who account for 26% of load. This fixed charge is shared by 408 customers.

Surprise, surprise, surprise! A number of the 408 customers now having to pay for NEB are very unhappy. I guess the big wind and solar developers who tied their generation plants directly to substations are very adamant they are being screwed. The irony of it!

Here's what they said when the PUC ordered they pay and pay by rate class portion of total load with a service charge equally spread among the customers of that rate class:

Helix (formerly Kibby Wind)

"Helix receives service from Central Maine Power Company (“CMP”), with a portion of such service on SGS rates and the majority on LGS-T-TOU rates. As a result of the Order, Helix received notice of a July 1, 2023, rate change due to the allocation of stranded costs under the NEB program. The notice reflected a dramatic increase in Helix’s LSG-T-TOU service charge by 1,733% per month, adding hundreds of thousands of dollars in unexpected costs per annum and diverting funds that could otherwise be invested in our operations."

Record Hill Wind

"According to information provided by CMP, LGS-T-TOU Service Charges will increase by 1733% Where we were previously paying $11,900 a month, under the July 1 rules RHW would be paying over $30,000 per month – a nearly 3-fold increase, nearly $225k per year. This is an effective rate of $1.19/kWh."

CPV Saddleback and Canton Mountain Wind

. "For CPV Canton and CPV Saddleback Ridge, the new tariffs will increase the fixed rate component of our station power bill from $1,071.90 to $19,648.05 per month – a 1,733% increase. For CPV Spruce Mountain and CPV Beaver Ridge, (each under 20MW) and their increase goes from $174.45 to $480.13 – a 175% increase. This 1,733% increase is our primary concern and results in one month where we effectively pay $3.99KWh on a per KWh consumption basis."

Calpine (Owns Natural Gas Plant in Westbrook)

"Calpine has been recently advised by CMP that, as of July 1, 2023, the Westbrook Facility will be charged a significantly higher monthly Service Charge due to a recent change in the rate design methodology for NEB stranded costs adopted by the Commission in the April 21 Order. Calpine understands that CMP’s monthly Service Charge to the Westbrook Facility increased as of July 1, 2023 from $1,070.90 to $19,648.05, or approximately 1,700 percent."

" To be clear: Calpine does not contend that it should bear no portion of CMP’s NEB stranded costs"

NextEra

"As a result of the April 21 Order, the NextEra Operating Assets will experience an unprecedented rate shock inconsistent with well-accepted ratemaking principles. For example, Casco Bay Storage was paying $5,556 annually and will now pay $235,210 annually, an over 4,000 percent increase, while Farmington Solar is estimated to experience over a 2,400-percentage increase."

EMT (Efficiency Maine Trust)

"Customer concern for relative fuel costs is manifest in visits to the Trust’s online tool for comparing annual operating expenses between home heating systems – the tool is among the most popular resources on the Trust’s website. The Trust is concerned that increases to electricity rates that reduce the economic attractiveness of electrified systems could undermine the pace of market transformation to these highly efficient, low carbon solutions that are critical to the State’s ability to meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets and to position Maine to flourish in a carbon-constrained economy. "

I don't know why EMT is speaking out in this case, but the comment is revealing, isn't it?

PUC (Public Utilities Commission)

"The Commission favored collecting the NEB stranded costs through a fixed charge, fundamentally because “recovering NEB stranded costs through a fixed charge ensures that all customers, including NEB program participants, pay a portion of stranded costs.” "

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court

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Comment by Willem Post on December 27, 2024 at 8:47am: They had a nearly free ride, and are SHOCKED they finally are treated as all others. SO UNFAIR

They likely will get some legislators to lean on the Utility, using the dubious argument they are saving the world, while stuffing their pockets and laughing all the way to the bank for decades.

All the while, they are screwing the over taxed, over regulated impoverished Maine folks who can out make ends meet in the near-zero, real-growth Maine economy, because their income increases were less than price increase for years, courtesy of Biden economics, and open borders waste, and federal deficit spending and huge trade imbalance in favor of Mexico, Canada, Europe, etc.

WE ARE SO SCREWED, BECAUSE OF THE 2020 COUP D ETAT OF THE CABAL PULLING THE STRINGS OF THE BROKEN/SENILE MARIONETTE AKA IN THE BASEMENT/ON THE BEACH, LYING, GRIFTING, GRAFTING BIDEN

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U.S. Sen Angus King

THE UNTOLD STORY OF RECORD HILL WIND

The Untold Story of Record Hill Wind, continued

Maine as Third World Country:

CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power

Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.

Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********

(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/

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