Breaking down the electric bill hikes coming for most Mainers on July 1

By Michael Shepherd, Bangor Daily News Staff

AUGUSTA — Solar subsidies and storms will drive another round of electric rate hikes hitting most Mainers on July 1, though the effects will differ depending on where you live.

One of the culprits is the rising cost of long-controversial solar subsidies that have been a hotly debated topic in Augusta since they passed in 2019. They led to a boom in projects, but Public Advocate William Harwood said last year they will cost ratepayers $220 million by 2025.

As of July 1, Maine will be about 60 percent of the way there. Customers of Central Maine Power Co. and Versant Power, the state’s two largest utilities, will bear $130 million in costs due to the net energy billing program from July 2024 to July 2025, Harwood said this week after energy regulators approved the latest round of rate hikes hitting at the first of next month.

Those costs are a major factor in the overall increases hitting ratepayers next month, though they are not the only ones. The most dramatic increase will be for CMP customers, who will see the typical monthly bill rise by 12.6 percent to $138.76 per month. For Versant customers, bills will increase by $6.99 in Aroostook County and drop slightly in the Bangor region.

For those CMP customers, about two-thirds of the monthly increase of $15.56 is due to rising distribution costs after the company’s coastal service area got whacked by windstorms in December and January. Those charges are not changing much in Versant territory.

The rest of it is effectively due to costs of conforming to public policies. Harwood said roughly 75 percent of that cost bucket is the solar subsidies. CMP and Versant customers in Aroostook County will see similar increases in that part of the bill, while Harwood said those in the Bangor area will generally see slight decreases due to a quirk in timing of solar projects coming online.

Harwood has warred with the solar industry since ramping up his criticisms of the subsidies last year. Those groups have said the ratepayer advocate is overstating the costs of the program and ignoring the economic benefits of installing so many projects across the state.

The subsidies were passed by the Democratic-led Legislature in 2019. Since then, those lawmakers resisted Republican calls to end the program altogether for fear of driving away developers. In response to rising costs, Democrats passed a bill shaving benefits down but in a less-dramatic fashion than Harwood and Republicans wanted.