Seven dollars a month. That's what Central Maine Power wants on bills now, before its rate case is even decided. And on Tuesday, Maine's regulators take it up. This is Power Bill. Also today, Atlantic City Electric's October bill shuffle, Hawaii's fixed-income math, a customer charge that more than doubles in the Northern Mariana Islands, and an actual proposed decrease in Missouri. We'll start in Maine. Hit follow so tomorrow's episode finds you.
Allyson LaPierre, reporting for WGME in Portland:
In response to the PUC staff recommendation, 70 job listings were removed from the CMP website, sparking debate.
So here's the order of events. Commission staff recommends denying CMP's temporary rate increase. CMP takes down seventy job postings. A Brunswick customer, Bruce Kanter, called that a pressure technique, quote, if you don't give us a rate increase, we're going to sure make you suffer from it. Let's set the numbers. This is a sixty-nine million dollar temporary increase, about seven dollars a month for the average customer. It sits on top of CMP's larger request, a hundred eighty-nine million in distribution revenue. Staff's reason for saying no is that there's no undisputed amount among the parties. That larger case could add up to eighteen dollars a month starting May 2027. All of it is proposed. None of it is approved. And to be fair, the unions are in CMP's corner. Josh Hall with IBEW 1837 says delaying the jobs and projects doesn't fix anything, and could mean longer outages. Tim Burgess with IBEW Local 104 says they're expecting job losses without some rate adjustment soon. CMP's own case is that the money pays for grid upgrades, more line workers and tree trimming, and that without it, some reliability projects could slip. That's a real argument. But it's an argument for the full rate case, which is exactly where staff said this belongs. Nearly seven hundred people have written to the commission. One said this would severely impact a household that already runs everything on electricity. That's who pays the seven dollars while the rest of the case plays out. Staff's recommendation isn't final. Parties have until Monday, October 5th, to respond, and the commission meets Tuesday, October 6th.
Leslie Sattler, writing on Yahoo:
October bills will reflect four main adjustments, Downbeach reported. Atlantic City Electric said distribution charges should drop by $9, while electricity supply costs are expected to rise by $7, transmission charges by $2, and surcharges by $1.
Add it up. Minus nine, plus seven, plus two, plus one. The average customer ends up about a dollar a month higher. The headline is the nine-dollar drop. The bill is a dollar up. Here's what each line is. About five dollars of that distribution drop is seasonal. Lower distribution rates kick in with October bills. The rest comes from a cut to the Conservation Incentive Program rate. The seven-dollar supply increase is also calendar-driven. Supply costs that were already approved run higher in winter, and the company says it buys that power through PJM and passes it along at cost. And the surcharge dollar is mostly New Jersey's energy efficiency and clean energy programs. Now the part I can't let go. A federal audit found Atlantic City Electric overcharged transmission customers, handled settlement payments incorrectly, and misread a federal tax law. The company's response was a two-cent-a-month reduction. Congressman Jeff Van Drew's line on that was, the only thing worth two cents is Atlantic City Electric's response. Some customers say their bills doubled or tripled over the past year. Two cents doesn't fix that.
From KHON2 in Honolulu:
“As an 80-year-old, retired Hawaii resident living on a fixed income, when electricity costs rise, I cannot simply increase my income to cover the difference,” he said. “Every additional dollar on my utility bill is a dollar I must take away from food, medicine, transportation, health or other basic needs.”
That came at the last of the Public Utilities Commission's statewide hearings on Hawaiian Electric's rebasing proposal, which wrapped up Friday. Officials put the typical residential increase at about eleven to fifteen dollars a month, depending on the island. And it comes in two phases, early 2027 and early 2028, then rates stay put until 2032. So that's not a one-year bump. You'd be living with it for years. HECO's senior vice president, Joe Viola, says the company knows times are tough, but argues the proposal is necessary for the company to remain sound and serve customers in a rapidly changing world. Remain sound. That's the company's balance sheet. The man at the microphone was talking about food and medicine. It's proposed, not approved. The commission decides next.
Leigh Cook, writing on Yahoo and citing KPRG News:
Monthly residential electric customer charges would also climb from $7 to $8.75 in year one, $14 in year two and $15.68 in year three. The CPUC said the separate fuel adjustment charge would remain unchanged.
Seven dollars to fifteen sixty-eight. That's the charge you pay before you use a single kilowatt-hour, and it more than doubles in three years. This is the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation in the Northern Mariana Islands. The usage rate moves too. Right now a household's first three hundred fifty kilowatt-hours cost 2.1 cents each. That would go to 2.63 cents in year one, then 4.2, then 4.7. The reason given is that revenue no longer covers the cost of service after inflation and storms, and there's been no base-rate increase since 2014. Then there's the Typhoon Restoration Surcharge. Up to twenty million dollars over twelve months for recovery from Typhoons Sinlaku and Bavi. The placeholder figure is 6.25 cents a kilowatt-hour. Our own math on that placeholder, not the filing's: at three hundred fifty kilowatt-hours, it's roughly twenty-two dollars a month for that year. It could change before any ruling. Hearings run October 19th through 21st, on Saipan, Tinian and Rota. If it's approved, the first changes would land December 1st. If you're on the islands, that's your window.
Jakob Butler, reporting for KODE and KSNF:
The adjustment would lead to a Liberty customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month to see an estimate of $3.22 saved in their monthly bills.
A fuel adjustment that goes down. I'll take it. Liberty Utilities, doing business as Empire District Electric, filed this Thursday with Missouri's Public Service Commission. About three dollars twenty-two a month for a thousand kilowatt-hour household, starting in December and running through May 2027, if the commission approves it. It runs through the Fuel and Purchased Power Clause, the same mechanism that usually brings increases. Which is my point about fuel clauses. They move both ways, and nobody notices either way unless somebody tells them. This time it's in your favor. It's still a proposal. The commission is taking public comments, and Missouri's Office of the Public Counsel represents the public in the case if you want to weigh in.
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On our watch list: Maine's commission takes up CMP's temporary rate request on Tuesday, October 6th. Northern Mariana Islands hearings run October 19th through 21st. And Liberty's proposed Missouri decrease would start in December.
Links to every story are in the show notes, so dig into the ones that caught your attention. That's Power Bill for today. We'll be back tomorrow. This is a Lantern Podcast.