Letter to the Editor: Answers to NECEC questions

5 mins read

In response to the questions raised by Jennings, William D.

1). “Will the people of Maine directly benefit from the addition of a power transmission line from Canada to the state of Massachusetts?”

Mainers will benefit from the corridor in several ways:

  • Direct payments for heat pumps, scholarships, low-income assistance, direct rate relief, and more as laid out in the stipulation agreement, will give Mainers many millions of dollars for various purposes over the coming years.
  • Downward pressure on electricity prices throughout New England. That gets a little complicated, but adding 1200MW of power onto the grid at a lower-than-average cost will let us avoid the most expensive sources, reducing the overall price that we pay.
  • Gov. Mills negotiated a discount price for a substantial amount of power to be delivered to Maine on the NECEC line, which would also help hold down Mainers’ electric rates.
  • Host communities will receive property tax revenues. Jay and Livermore Falls, combined, would receive about a million dollars a year. The loss of tax revenue from the paper mills has been painful and this development would help make up for that loss.
  • This corridor brings in a new source of renewable power without Maine having to pay for the infrastructure. More on why that is meaningful in the next two answers.

2). “If not, will the people of Maine have to bear the added expense of building and maintaining such a power grid?”

I’m not sure what this question is asking. Mainers will not be paying for the construction or maintenance of this line, period.

Mainers generally pay about 8% of the cost of building transmission infrastructure anywhere in the ISO-NE (New England region) grid. Those costs are set by FERC, which is federal, and we don’t have a lot of say in it.

But this line is different; its construction and maintenance will be paid for by Massachusetts ratepayers alone. Adding 1200MW clean power to the grid at no cost to Maine ratepayers helps fill a looming need without the ~$80 million price tag that we would normally have to pay for the infrastructure.

3). “With the rejection of this power grid addition, is the massive increase in consumer electric rates punitive?”

Emphatically no. Utilities were given rate increases a few months ago, largely due to a big increase in that FERC bill I mentioned earlier. As we move from coal, oil, and natural gas plants to renewables and storage, we need more infrastructure to reach those sources. The huge build-out we’ve seen throughout New England in recent years has been the driving force behind rising rates – even as the cost of electricity has dropped. This summer, the PUC told the utilities to wait to collect some storm response costs because it was clear that prices would be climbing dramatically.

Note that Versant, which has nothing to do with the NECEC corridor, had an even larger delivery rate hike than CMP customers this summer. Those prices are set by the PUC.

Right now, there is a regional natural gas shortage on top of a global petroleum price spike. Those forces have combined to drive our energy prices through the roof. We hope this won’t last long, but the Ukraine/Russia turmoil is going to impact those prices as well. The large increase we saw in our “standard offer” electric supply rates starting last month is the predictable response to those issues. Right now, there are few options for lower rates, but some competitive electricity suppliers are offering slightly better rates. CMP has nothing to do with that cost; they send the bill and relay the payment to your supplier but they do not get a profit from it.

Corridor opponents raise a lot of concerns about the profit motive of the corporation, environmental impact, and more as they fight against this development. The concerns they’ve brought forward are valid and they need to be weighed against these and other benefits. It’s important to understand all sides of the issue in order to make a wise choice; there are good reasons to land on either side of the issue. Personally, with the massive increases we’re seeing in energy bills, the financial considerations have become important enough to me that they outweigh the negatives.

Tina Riley
Jay, ME

Print Friendly, PDF & Email