SAVING ON ELECTRICITY

Maine’s Public Utilities Commission is saving Maine’s businesses and individuals substantial amounts on their electric bills, and it is planning how to save even more.

Its annual report on Efficiency Maine tells how that program saved money and improved Maine’s environment in 2006 through more efficient use of electricity.

Its recent preliminary report on Maine’s participation in the New England power grid goes into where Maine power comes from. It looks toward cost-saving alternatives, including a possible partnership with nearby Canadian provinces.

Savings through Efficiency Maine last year, brought about by, for instance, encouraging the use of better light fixtures, saved the equivalent of the annual electricity needs of nearly 11,000 homes. By reducing electricity use by more than 74 million kilowatt hours in 2006, the program avoided the production of more than 320,000 tons of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.

Among other measures, Efficiency Maine promoted the sale of low-cost compact fluorescent lights, saved more than $2.7 million by replacing 2,500 out-of-date refrigerators in low-income housing, and saved Maine homeowners, schools and businesses more than 121 million kilowatt hours in the past three years, with a lifetime economic benefit to the state of $86.6 million.

Changing the source of Maine’s electricity could bring even greater savings. The PUC estimated that continued participation in the New England grid, the ISO-NE system, would cost consumers as much as $616 million over the next five years. Chairman Kurt Adams said that the PUC had found “no insurmountable legal, economic or technical barriers to withdrawing from ISO-NE.” As viable alternatives, he suggested formation of an independent Maine transmission company or the creation of a Maine-Canadian Maritimes market.

In an analysis of costs and benefits of withdrawing from the New England grid, the PUC found the that the present cost allocation “is inequitable and results in a transfer of payments from Maine consumers to consumers in southern New England.” It predicted that big transmission investments in Connecticut and Massachusetts will greatly increase this inequity.

It found that the present cost-sharing method could cost Maine $75 million per year for new transmission investment throughout New England with benefits to Maine ratepayers that would be “minimal, at best.”

Pending final report to the Legislature in January 2008, the PUC is going ahead with negotiations with New Brunswick and other Maritime provinces on how to create a U.S.-Canadian common market.

So the PUC is planning and delivering electricity savings to Maine’s people, businesses and institutions on a retail and wholesale basis. That’s what a public utilities commission should be doing.