Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine

Two Products, Two Contracts, Ratepayers Beware.

Could Maine Ratepayers end up paying wind plants in Maine the REC value obtained from contracts involving other State RPS programs ? That would be quite perverse, but strange things happen when lawmakers screw around in the private sector.

Maine ratepayers have endured many long term contracts for electrical energy that became so burdensome with exorbitant costs, the contracts were bought out, the generator shut down and compensatory payments to the generator becoming ratepayer-responsible " stranded costs "

Maine is still in the "long term contract " business. Regulators bring investor owned transmission and distribution ( T & D ) companies together with generators to arrange energy purchases, despite the fact electricity re-structuring of 2000 was supposed to decouple supply from T & D.

The two largest Maine T & D companies are currently coupled by contract with two large scale wind generators and two other contracts with two other wind generators are under review.

By contract, T & D companies purchase output from the wind plant owners at a set price per kilowatt-hour. This price escalates annually. By law, the T & D companies can not resell this output in the retail market. T & D has to take the moment's wholesale price from the New England Regional Electric Market, a price that constantly changes, so the pricing risk is passed from the generator to T & D and consequently from T & D to the ratepayers.

The wind plant owners also contract-for-purchase another product with each megawatt-hour of output, the Renewable Energy Credit (REC).

These RECs need to be purchased by companies providing the retail electric market as proof of compliance with renewable portfolio standards (RPS). Generally, the greater the need for RECs, the higher the price obtained by generators.

The REC market includes all of New England, except Vermont. The prices for RECs in states outside of Maine currently fetch over 10 times the Maine REC price, so Maine wind plant owners, naturally, sell to the high price.

These long term contracts for output are for twenty years and assumptions based on future wholesale prices on electricity have to be made. These forecasts have often been inaccurate and unintended high costs to ratepayers are often realized well before the end of contract. The decision to buy out a " sour " contract has occurred all too frequently, in the past.

Buying out long term contracts with wind plant owners are considerably more complicated with RECs tied to output but not part of the contract with T & D. Buying out these contracts would be a lot more troublesome. Two products, output and RECs, inherently tied to each other, but sold separately ; severing one contract, severs the other.

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Comment by Dan McKay on March 28, 2015 at 1:19pm: http://www.maine.gov/mpuc/electricity/CMPElectricityRateTransparenc...

Comment by alice mckay barnett on March 25, 2015 at 6:04pm: J. Dwight listed 7 costs on electricity bills. wish I could find the list.

Comment by alice mckay barnett on March 24, 2015 at 6:29pm: what is the list of extra costs on the ratepayers

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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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