Report recommends smaller CMP project
A Maine Public Utilities Commission advisory panel has recommended scrapping parts of Central Maine Power Co.'s proposed $1.5 billion Maine Power Reliability Project.
The examiner's report, released April 23, backed most of CMP's plan to upgrade or add to its high-voltage transmission backbone in the northern and western portions of Maine, but recommended denying or deferring parts of the project in other regions. The report supported a plan for additional 345 kilovolt transmission lines from Orrington to Albion and in the Buxton/South Gorham areas, as well as other various upgrades to improve reliability. But the report said additional 345 kV and 115 kV lines from South Gorham to the Maine/New Hampshire border and in central Maine, as well as several new substations, "would not be needed within a reasonable planning horizon."
In making its recommendations, the staff disagreed with ISO-New England's reliability analysis, and found ISO-NE's electricity load forecasts "unreasonable" and did not meet the organization's "own requirements that the stressed conditions...have a reasonable probability of actually occurring." The staff attributed the state's high electricity rates in part to "the over-stringent assumptions used by ISO-NE" and urged for greater transparency in transmission projects. The staff's report would bring the project's total cost down to $1 billion.
The report also said that other non-transmission projects, like the massive solar installations proposed by Portland-based GridSolar, be further considered as alternatives.
The PUC plans to deliberate on the case May 25, according to the Portland Press Herald.
Go to the article from the Portland Press Herald >>
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