State eyes Canadian energy coalition PUC, companies consider transmission pact with Maritime Provinces

BANGOR – Mainers have begun to question the value of teaming up with 11 other Eastern states in a super power-grid system designed to ensure a reliable supply of electricity at stable prices.

Instead, Maine transmission companies, consumer groups and even officials at the Public Utilities Commission have been looking at forming a transmission coalition with Canada.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last July ordered Maine and the five other New England states to form a regional transmission organization, or RTO, with New York, Pennsylvania and other states down to the Virginia border.

FERC envisions four RTOs for the entire country and would supervise the formation and practices of any such organization.

Mainers who balk at joining in an 11-state Northeast RTO fear that Maine’s electricity reserves for heavy consumption days during summer and winter could be drained as power is shipped to heavily populated states such as New York and Pennsylvania.

Anthony Buxton, an attorney representing the Industrial Energy Consumers Group, said Maine, with 1.2 million people, would become “a smaller fish in a bigger pond” of 70 million electricity users whose power needs would get attention first.

“I’m not sure the transmission needs of Maine or New England would be addressed,” Buxton said.

He said that energy-abundant Maine, with five new power generators on line and electricity flowing through it from Canada, would become a superhighway for electricity-starved Southern states without receiving any of the benefits, such as lower and more stable transmission rates.

The PUC is looking at the pros and cons of becoming part of an RTO that includes the other five New England states, the Maritime Provinces, and possibly Quebec and New York.

Maine has become the primary link for Canada to sell its power surplus to New England and other states.

Canada has strengthened its investment in Maine in recent years. In October, Emera Inc. of Halifax, Nova Scotia, bought Bangor Hydro-Electric Co.

This week, Emera said it may be interested in purchasing two large New Brunswick power plants – the Point Lepreau nuclear station and the Coleson Cove generating facility – from NB Power.

Stephen Ward, Maine’s public advocate, said if Emera buys those two plants, the need for an RTO with Maritime Canada becomes more important. He said Point Lepreau needs millions of dollars in repairs. While that is being done, the province will need power and Maine is the place to get it.