CMP president reiterates facts about power State development efforts chided

BANGOR – Central Maine Power Co. President Sara Burns came here Thursday to deliver a message – CMP hasn’t made electricity for more than two years. It just delivers it.

The point she was trying to make at a Husson College business breakfast is that people still are confused about the state’s energy policies. That confusion continues to affect her business, with consumers asking the company almost every day about power production.

“We are out of the supply business by law,” Burns told the group, noting again that CMP only delivers electricity. “We’re just like UPS, Federal Express and the milkman.”

Burns started her talk with opinions about the mandated restructuring of the state’s electricity markets more than two years ago and followed with observations on economic development practices.

The state’s three largest utilities – including CMP, which is the largest – were ordered by the state Legislature to sell their generators and get out of the electricity supply market. The utilities were left as operators of transmission lines.

But customers still think CMP makes power, Burns said. Despite that assertion, however, a number of people in the audience still asked her questions pertaining to electricity supply, particularly how CMP could sell more power produced from renewable sources.

The hype surrounding the restructuring of the state’s electricity markets more than two years ago added to the confusion about what the breakup of the utilities actually meant to consumers, she said. People were told the prices they pay for electricity would be going down because power suppliers would come to Maine and compete among themselves for customers. Competition would result in lower rates plus telephone calls late at night from telemarketers trying to sign up customers.

“Did we get what we hoped for?” Burns asked the group. “Do we remember what we hoped for?”

Transmission rates, however, recently have gone down for CMP customers because one-time costs previously mandated by the state have since been paid. In addition, some of the profits from CMP’s sale of its generators have been used to reduce rates, she said.

Burns admitted that even two years later, a restructured power market continues to be “a work in progress.” But she complained that bills before the Legislature earlier this year attempted to force consumers to pay through transmission rate increases for alternative energy sources and conservation programs.

The legislative measures, the majority of which failed, she said, are “examples of confusing our customers.”

Regarding power supplies, though, Burns said facilities in Maine generate more than enough electricity to meet the needs of all the state’s consumers. But Canadian companies are looking to transmit power through Maine to the New England power grid where the energy is needed, particularly on hot days during the summer. And American companies have built five new gas-fired power generators in Maine in recent years primarily to export it to the rest of New England.

At times during the summer, however, bottlenecks occur at the Maine-New Hampshire border because the transmission lines are at capacity. The power being produced in Maine can’t get out to the New England market, she said.

Burns asked the group of about 50 people whether Mainers should be responsible for paying for new transmission lines to get electricity to the rest of New England. That question, she said, requires statewide debate.

“Do we want to facilitate bringing power in through Maine to get to the rest of the grid?” she asked.

Then, answering her own question, Burns added, “only if the outcome would be lower prices” for Maine consumers.

On state economic development issues, Burns told her audience of businesspeople that Maine needs to organize its fragmented business growth policy structure.

Maine is a slow-growth state, she said, yet it has “175 nonfederal agencies, corporations, associations, foundations and programs devoted solely to economic development.”

“No place could I find a dollar figure linked to these activities,” said Burns, who is treasurer of Maine and Company, an independent business attraction group that she admitted is one of the 175.

As an example, Burns said a production company in Maine recently opened a plant in Michigan because that state’s economic development corporation was better organized to answer the firm’s questions about expansion there.

She said Michigan has a “one-stop shop” that handles business attraction, business retention, site locations, permitting, environmental concerns, employment training and tourism issues.

“It’s all under one umbrella,” she said. The Michigan Economic Development Corp.’s Web site is www.medc.michigan.org.

Maine needs to take a serious look at what it is doing to attract new businesses and keep the ones that are already here, Burns said, noting that Michigan’s model could be used as an example.

“I think we need to do more,” she said. “I’m not convinced those 175 groups are producing the results we need here in Maine.”