Central Maine Power’s customers will see some significant savings on their bills starting this summer, thanks to the end of expensive, long-term power contracts.
The contracts originated under a federal law that aimed to hedge against price surges seen in the 1970s energy crisis. Maine Public Utilities Commission spokesman Harry Lanphear says decades-long contracts Maine utilities signed with Maine-based biomass generators ultimately locked them into rates that were far above market rates.
“Wood-fired plants that would replace, at least at the time, oil. Everyone felt that oil was going to get to $100 dollars a barrel and of course, as you know, that didn’t happen,” he says.
Customers will save about $28 million now that the “legacy” contracts are expired. And, in addition, the return of excess payments for storing waste at the closed Maine Yankee nuclear power plant adds another $21 million to the kitty.
Lanphear says starting in summer, residential customers will save about 3 percent on their bills. Businesses, meanwhile, will save between 15 percent and 24 percent.