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.