Commercial, industrial electric rates to rise

AUGUSTA – Electric rates will soon be going up for thousands of businesses in Maine, the Public Utilities Commission announced Wednesday.

The PUC accepted bids Tuesday for new standard offer energy prices for medium and large commercial and industrial customers of Central Maine Power Co. and Bangor Hydro-Electric Co.

Beginning March 1, rates will go up 8.5 percent for CMP’s medium commercial and industrial customers and 15 percent for large customers.

Bangor Hydro’s rates will go up about 10 percent for medium customers and 19 percent for large customers.

The price increases follow last month’s announcement that rates for residential and small commercial customers would go up between 9 and 10 percent on March 1.

The hikes are the result of price increases in oil and natural gas, the fuels that dominate New England wholesale power market prices, Public Utilities Commission Chairman Kurt Adams said.

“The market continues to punish consumers,” he said.

The standard offer is the default service for customers who don’t choose to buy service from a competing supplier.

The standard offer rate hikes will not directly affect most large commercial customers and a substantial amount of medium customers because they buy their electricity from other suppliers.

But the rate hikes are an indicator of what is happening in the energy marketplace, PUC officials said.

There are 12,461 medium and 470 large commercial and industrial electricity customers in Maine, according to the PUC.