Last month, Maine lawmakers killed a bill that would have stopped a regressive energy program and lowered energy costs for ratepayers across the state. As a result, Mainers can expect sky-high energy rates to continue into the warm weather season.
An Act to Reduce Electricity Bills (LD 683), sponsored by Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winterport), would have ended Maine’s Net Energy Billing (NEB) system which provides participating ratepayers with dollar credits to their electricity bills when they use private or shared renewable energy sources. This means that ratepayers that aren’t in the NEB are eating the costs through higher rates charged by Versant and Central Maine Power to make up for the lost revenue, rewarding Mainers who can afford to purchase solar energy for their homes and sticking NEB non-participants with the bill. While this may seem like an economical way to encourage a transition to renewable energy, this program ensures that lower-income Mainers who cannot afford to purchase solar energy panels for their homes, subsidize wealthy Mainers who can.
Mainers’ electric bills are already 24 percent higher than the national average electric bill. Electricity and heating costs are still high three months into the new year, with heating oil prices hovering at almost $4.00 a gallon and electricity prices remaining elevated due to cold weather and lower output of natural gas.
Despite these high energy costs, incentives to build solar energy infrastructure have continued to put pressure on Maine ratepayers. Through NEB, some ratepayers are able to lower their individual costs by participating in community solar, small-scale solar farms. But public utilities like Versant Power and Central Maine Power make up the difference of this lost revenue by raising energy rates for remaining customers.
Large-scale solar developers have been building solar farms left and right across Maine, but there’s a catch: Certain solar farms will be restricted in how much power they can generate. These arbitrary restrictions are reflected in the 1,000 solar energy and 23,000 community solar projects currently being built across the state and its Mainers who aren’t connected to those projects who are paying for it.
While wealthy Mainers, who can afford the over $17,000 price tag for a 6 kilowatt (kW) solar system, reap the benefits of lower electricity rates, Mainers that cannot afford to purchase solar energy infrastructure are quite literally left out in the cold. With Maine’s population being disproportionately older, many of whom live on Social Security, older Mainers who cannot afford to purchase solar infrastructure are directly subsidizing wealthy areas like Bar Harbor’s transition to renewable energy.
Supporters of Maine’s renewable energy transition point to the urgency in combating the climate crisis. However, despite the large amount of community solar facilities being built throughout Maine, 88 percent of the companies registered with the state are from outside of Maine. Solar panels also only capture and covert around 20 percent of incoming solar energy, which requires solar farms to have dozens to hundreds of solar panels, occupying massive amounts of space.
The total amount of land for utility-scale solar power sits at half a million acres in the United States alone, and more solar farms in Maine will require service roads, transmission lines, and other foundational infrastructure to function. Mainers who put a premium on Maine’s great outdoors should be concerned that solar farms will dot the landscape throughout Downeast and Aroostook — all with the goal of reducing emissions.
Apart from disincentivizing the spread of solar panel forests across the state, ending the regressive NEB program would have granted low-income Mainers some relief on their electrical bills. Rep. Steven Foster (R-Dexter) remarked that “as NEV projects continue to come online…the expected $220 million per year added cost to ratepayers will be realized and likely surpassed this year or next. The next Legislature will need to address the increasing number of elderly and low-income Mainers who can no longer afford to pay their electric bills. Justifying this [NEB] as a necessary cost of addressing climate change is irresponsible.” As long as Maine Senate Democrats prioritize overblown concerns about climate change, the poorest Mainers will struggle to keep the lights on.
Mainers who can afford to purchase solar power should be able to do so, but not by using low-income Mainer’s money. Maine’s NEB system puts the wealthy ahead of rural, low-income, and senior Mainer’s by making them subsidize solar energy in the state. The fact that Maine’s Senate Democrats continue to let Maine’s lowest-income citizens bankroll the state’s solar energy rollout is reprehensible.
The cost of electric delivered in Maine is measured in cents per kilowatt hour. Maine is currently over 28 cents per kilowatt hour. US states ranked from lowest (North Dakota 10.23 cents) to the highest continental US (Rhode Island 30.88 cents). There are only 4 states with higher KHW costs than Maine.
The original net metering program put in place in 2000 for mostly rooftop solar was a joke from the beginning. It allowed customers with enough capital to install systems a credit on both the delivery and supply portion of their bills. The reality is that they should only be getting a credit on their supply portion of the invoice. These customers are still connected to the utility distribution system. It forced CMP and Versant to act like a pseudo battery backup. These customers wheel power from their systems in times of excess and wheel it back when deficient. All for free on the backs of non Net metering customers. Most systems now are so big these customers only pay the minimum delivery charge. In other words they’re not paying their fair share of upkeep of the lines, repair of lines and poles during storms, tree trimming etc. If that wasn’t a big enough screwing of Maine ratepayers, the legislature put in place the commercial net metering a few years ago. That’s when all these monster solar farms were being built. Almost all of these are owned by out of state entities. They also brought in out of state workers to install these farms. Even better, at the start these facilities were getting paid a retail rate for a wholesale product. They were getting paid approximately 21cents while traditional generators were getting paid 3.5 cents. The difference being passed on to non net metering customers as stranded costs. Commercial properties signing up for this program were promised a 20% discount off their bills. The profit almost exclusively flowed out of state. Next time you have an urge to complain about the state of the utility system in the state. Or next time you want to complain about your electric bill thank your local legislature. Votes matter. You have nobody to blame but yourself.
So CMP wants to cut down a 100 acres for power lines that would have lowered everybody’s rates and the hicks go ape’s shit. But clear 100’s of acres for solar panels that rises rates ….crickets. “I’m a democrat and I’m here to help (myself)”.
The leftists of the democrat party who believe this climate change hoax are stark raving mad. Their ideology is nothing short of pure madness. They can put their beloved solar installations in a place where the sun doesn’t shine.
Read Robert Bryce “California’s Electricity Disaster in Seven Charts” on Substack. It foretells Maine’s future and documents low-income ratepayers subsidizing the rich.
Mike, your analysis of Maine’s Net Energy Billing Program is spot on. Let me introduce a few numbers to your factual rendition of legislative stupidity: My remarks are in Bold, Italics
First, from Central Maine Power: Central Maine Power ” Summary of Net Energy Billing Agreements” February 29, 2024
“There are approximately 64,688 customer accounts associated with Net Energy Billing”
Estimated Annual Delivery Revenue Loss from kWh Netting Agreements $98,819,962
Estimated Annual Net Expense from Tariff Rate Agreements $116,934,282
Second, from the Maine PUC: “Annual Report on New Renewable Resource Portfolio Requirement Report of 2022 Activity” March 25,2024:
“Based on data from NEPOOL-GIS Regulator Reports, 64% of the NEW (since 1/1/2019) solar generation physically located in Maine that registered with NEPOOL GIS only registered their RECs for sale outside the State of Maine.”
“During 2022, Maine’s electricity suppliers complied with the State’s Class I/IA, Class II and Thermal portfolio requirements. The total cost of compliance was $88,051,069 or 0.706 cents per kWh.” (All paid by ratepayers from the purchase of RECs)
“For the 2022 compliance period, CEPs (Competitive Electricity Providers) reported a total of 12,463,346 MWh of retail electricity sales.” (The Resource Portfolio Requirements for 2022 demanded the CEPs purchase and pass on to the ratepayers an number of RECs that account for 48.8% of the 12,463,346 MWH)
“As of January 5, 2024, there are 393 certified Class I facilities, with a total capacity of approximately 4,772 MW., RECs from 66 facilities were used by suppliers (CEPs) to comply with the 2022 Class I resource requirement. Fifteen of the facilities are biomass, 26 are hydroelectric, one is fuel cell, 20 are solar, and 4 are wind. Fifty-eight of the facilities are located in Maine and contributed about 78.3% of the total Class I RECs. Most of the Class I RECs came from biomass facilities (58.5%), followed by wind (20.8%), and then hydroelectric (19.4%).”
” RECs from 55 facilities were used by suppliers to comply with the 2022 Class IA resource requirement. Thirteen of the facilities are biomass, eighteen of the facilities are hydroelectric, nineteen are solar, and four are wind. Forty-eight of the facilities used to generate Class IA RECs in 2022 are located in Maine. Of the Class IA RECs, 73.9% came from facilities in Maine. The largest share of REC’s came from biomass facilities (40.4%), followed by hydroelectric facilities (38.6%), then wind facilities (17.8%)”
“…… the mix of resources used to satisfy Maine’s Class II renewable resource portfolio requirement during 2022. Most of the Class II resources supplying RECs in 2022 were hydroelectric generators (80.2%), and all other resources contributed less than 10% each. Seventy-seven of the facilities were located in Maine and contributed about 52% of the Class II RECs.”
It is worth noting that renewable resources sited in Maine are able to produce 12,463,346 MWh, matching sales, which begs the question, why are we buying RECs? Claim 100% compliance and move on!
It is also worth noting that CEPs also purchase real electricity from the real market that comprises 61.3% Natural Gas-Fired Plant Production and 8.5% Oil-Fired Plant Production. Just to keep the lights on in Maine (Data from July 2022 to June 30, 2023)
This article makes me feel so bad for Central Maine Power, their Spanish overlords, and their Qatar Owners. Horrible little solar farms that aren’t even getting built because the utilities won’t allow them. I hate anything hurting our foreign owned utilities and the sky high rates they charge!!!!
Rate payers and taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to subsidize any energy sources. Each energy source should stand on it’s own based on cost and reliability. Solar is near the bottom of the list for power reliability because it generates nothing at night and little on cloudy days or when the solar panels are covered with snow.
I work for a major New England utility. If you only knew the ridiculous regulations that we must follow. Most of our lines are on private property. We must respect so many environmental “rules” yet the landowner of that property does not. Then there is the issue of the Amerinds that can find any reason to call private property sacred, and the ratepayers have to pay their ransom. The utilities are not immune from corruption. The CEO of Eversource just got a huge raise even though he has driven the stock price down by 30% and lost $1.4 BILLION on a failed wind project.
Can any of the ellected officals tell us how much oxygen production is los due to the shadows cast by a solar palanel? and how much carbon dioxide is not removed by the same shidow genrated buy each solar panel?. If the grass don’t grow it ain’t making oxygen!
North Dakota is far north so it is not sun lite they can thank. Tell us why.
Mike do you mean that the average joe in Maine is being screwed by our ellected officals ie An Offical Screwing.
Vote the bums out right Angus.
is it fubr yet and open pit mining to make batteries is OK Boy are the friends of Angus dumb!
Right CP.
Charles. Like most clueless “the sky is falling” ratepayers who think the net metering program is hurting CMP and Versant try to obtain your GED and learn how these costs are dealt with in rates. Because it is state mandated all costs associated with this program are passed 100% through delivery rates to ratepayers. Since NEB customers get a credit on their delivery ALL of the associated costs get passed to non NEB ratepayers.
Aren’t those solar panel farms you drive by beautiful? They blend in so well with the surrounding environment. I’m glad they got rid of the pesky animals that lived on those acres of land and cut down those nasty trees that provide O2 and balance out O2 and co2. I’d like to live next to one of those strip mines that create the big gashes in the land to get the minerals to make the panels that wear out and have to be replaced every 15 yrs. I bet it would be so quiet and peaceful to live there. Oh and those tired panels that aren’t recyclable can be buried in huge pits right next to the windmill blades which also aren’t biodegradable. Then on those short winter days when the panels are covered in snow and ice I’ll be able to charge my ev 10 hrs/day to drive 20 miles.That’ll be great. It sounds so wonderful and good for the environment.
Actually, in Maine, the “capacity factor” for solar is 15% or a bit mess. This means that, on a annual basis, panels only generate 15% of their name plate rating. Not much solar electricity being generated in Maine this week!
Because of Gov Mills and Dems, your CMP bill will increase 12% due to solar subsidies. Solar is not cost effective. We pay and get screwed. Why don’t Mainers vote out every democrat they can?