GridSolar, CMP and the Maine PUC‏

Gridsolar, CMP and Maine PUC

As a small business owner in Maine, my business and my family have not dodged the economic downturn.  We look everyday to be more efficient with less; provide our employees with health care and minimizing our operating expenses.  If you speak and look to small business owners here in Maine or around the country you’ll find that we are all doing the same.   It was big business, greedy banks, and CEO’s that bent the United States over the proverbial barrel and put it to us.  We are not by any means recovered from this latest injustice, and yet Central Maine Power has a plan that further burdens us with increased rates while CMP’s owner and parent company Energy East, part of the Spain-based Iberdrola Group, toasts the Maine Public Utilities Commission all the way to the bank.  Let me explain.

 

The Maine Public Utilities Commission has been tasked with approving one of two proposals outlining how Maine’s electricity will be produced and delivered in future.  The two plans consist of CMP’s Maine Power Reliability Project and the GridSolar Project by GridSolar LLC.   CMP will call on existing and new generation facilities located anywhere in the northeast and Canada to provide energy for Maine; GridSolar will produce green energy right here in Maine by installing photovoltaic (solar) systems to meet future load growth.  Ratepayers, of course, will pay for whichever plan is approved.   In my mind here is where the two roads (plans) diverge.  

 

CMP’s plan will spend the $1.5 billion upfront over the next 3 years to upgrade transmission lines and equipment.  Ratepayers will incur this burden through rate hikes, whether or not the investment is actually needed.  The GridSolar Project responds incrementally as needed, so if load does not grow as rapidly as CMP has projected, ratepayers will pay much less.  Also because GridSolar will deliver energy to the Maine PUC (and hence Maine ratepayers) at .03 cents per kW/h for 20 years, Maine ratepayers will save $60 million dollar per year.  And this savings is likely to increase as the price of electricity increases.   To understand this savings in the most simplistic terms:  Once the solar equipment is paid for and installed, the cost of sunshine does not fluctuate.  The same cannot be said regarding fossil fuels.  There will be no savings to Maine ratepayers with the CMP plan.

On the green front, CMP’s plan cannot guarantee that CO2 emissions will be lower – business as usual.  The GridSolar Project reduces carbon emissions by 500,000 tons per year – equivalent to taking 100,000 cars off the road.  If the GridSolar Project is approved Maine will become a leader in solar technology, and with some foresight from our officials in Augusta, should be able to leverage this to promote solar technology businesses in Maine.

 
Land:  GridSolar is looking for suitable sites to lease for their solar arrays.  They will pay you for the use of your land.  CMP will take your land through a right called Eminent Domain.

I have an obvious bias towards GridSolar’s project, and I could fill this page with pros and cons, however you can go online, check the facts and come to your own conclusions.  When you do check the facts, I encourage you to call Maine PUC and advocate for what you think is best for Maine’s future.  I find it hard to believe anyone could choose differently than I have.  

One last point – CMP has spent close to $100 million in preparation for the implementation of their plan.  Legal fees and public relations (like the guy that came to your town meeting to sell their plan) make up the majority of the money spent.  I don’t know what GridSolar has spent … however, I do know that any money spent by GridSolar has come from its own pocket.  Oh, and the $100 million that CMP has already spent – who do you think is really paying for that?  That’s right… we are!  Business as usual... give my regards to Spain.

Jim Gill
Harrison, Maine

 

For more information on GridSolar and what it is all about click here.