Maine Denies CMP Temporary Rates, and the Net Energy Billing Successor Is Not Yet Filed

On October 6 Maine’s regulators told Central Maine Power it could not have a temporary rate increase while its full rate case runs. Separately, a September 30 date for the Department of Energy Resources to file the replacement for net energy billing passed without a filing, according to the department’s own page.

Developments dated September 22 – October 12, 2026, covering Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Québec and New Brunswick. See the About page for how this scan works and what it can and can’t check.

Maine: no temporary rates for CMP

The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC, the state agency that sets electric rates) denied Central Maine Power’s request for $69.3 million in temporary rates, about $7 a month for a typical home. Temporary rates are a stopgap: they take effect while a full rate case is still being decided, and are refunded if the final answer comes in lower. Maine law lets the PUC approve only an “undisputed” amount, and the order finds that all of it was disputed. Eight parties objected, including the state’s Public Advocate and Department of Energy Resources, AARP Maine, Efficiency Maine Trust and the Natural Resources Council of Maine. The three commissioners voted unanimously.

The order gives a second, discretionary ground. Affordability, the risk of confusing customers who have seen several rate changes in recent years, performance incentives still under consideration and the sheer complexity of the case all outweighed the one argument for temporary rates, which was CMP’s low earnings. CMP told the Commission its return on equity was 4.88% in 2024 and 5.60% in 2025 and could fall to 3–4% this year, and that S&P Global changed its outlook on the company to negative in July. The order notes that, had the earnings concern won out, the undisputed amount “could be $21.1 million,” the Public Advocate’s figure at its originally proposed return on equity (the Advocate’s final position was that all of it is disputed), and says the Commission would still have to decide whether the law allows temporary rates at this stage. It did not decide either point. CMP had argued the opposite: that the Public Advocate’s and the Department of Energy Resources’ own testimony supported at least the $69.3 million, and several union locals and chambers of commerce backed temporary rates.

The permanent request, for $189 million in added annual revenue, is still open. CMP’s filing, as the order recites it, would add $11.06 a month, or 6.72%, to an average home bill from May 1, 2027, with hearings set for January 20–21. The order does not rule out CMP seeking temporary rates later, “should some clear agreement be reached between the parties.”

Maine: the successor to net energy billing has not been filed

Under a 2025 law (Public Law 2025, chapter 430), the state’s energy agency, now called the Department of Energy Resources (DOER; the law named its predecessor, the Governor’s Energy Office), had to give the PUC a design by September 30 for a successor to net energy billing for “front-of-the-meter” generators, meaning solar and other projects, such as community solar, that connect on the utility’s side of the customer meter. The PUC adopts it only if it finds the benefits to ratepayers exceed the costs.

DOER published a draft on August 27 and took comments through September 11, with 13 submissions that included CMP, Versant Power and the Conservation Law Foundation. On September 30, the due date, it wrote to the PUC that it “has not yet reached a program proposal that it believes would meet the statutory standard for Commission approval and therefore does not submit any proposal at this time.” It added that it does not think such a program is unachievable and “expects to provide a complete proposal to the Commission in the coming weeks,” citing the need to incorporate stakeholder feedback and finish its analysis of net ratepayer benefits. The same law gives the PUC 120 days from receiving a design to approve or reject it, so that clock has not started. DOER’s own program page, read on October 12, still showed no filing.

Maine: a route and a date for the northern Maine line

In August the PUC selected Clearway Energy Group for an 800 MW wind farm in northern Maine, and Avangrid, CMP’s parent, to negotiate a contract to build the 1,200 MW transmission line that would carry it. This month the Bangor Daily News reported that the Maine Republican Caucus got a first look at a proposed route of about 108 miles between substations at Haynesville and Pittsfield, following existing transmission corridors. The article also prints a timeline without saying who supplied it: permitting from 2027 to 2031, construction starting in 2031 and service in 2033. Treat those as projected dates, not commitments.

No contract has been announced as signed. The PUC’s docket for the procurement shows nothing filed since a September 4 order (confidential filings would not appear), and the PUC said in August that it plans to issue additional requests for proposals for the 400 MW the line would have left over, per the American Public Power Association. An earlier attempt at this procurement failed, which is why “selected” is not the same as “built.”

Regional: the line ISO-NE selected

A separate project was selected in August, and it belongs next to this one. ISO-New England, the independent operator of the regional grid and its wholesale markets, selected a Central Maine Power alternating-current upgrade as its preferred answer to three needs set by New England’s states. The sponsor’s estimate is $2.20 billion, with service targeted for the fourth quarter of 2032. The needs are to raise the Maine–New Hampshire interface’s capability to at least 3,000 MW, the Surowiec-South interface within Maine to at least 3,200 MW, and to build new infrastructure at Pittsfield able to connect at least 1,200 MW of onshore wind. Six proposals came in, from $0.96 billion to $4.04 billion, and four failed ISO-NE’s tests. A second CMP design came in cheaper, at $2.14 billion, but ISO-NE preferred the first on permitting and siting. NESCOE, the states’ committee, had 30 days to ask for the process to end or to change who pays; no such request turned up in the sources checked.

Both projects are meant to move northern Maine wind to the rest of New England, and they overlap at Pittsfield. The sources read here don’t say how the two fit together. Neither is under construction.

Québec: a new government, and no energy position yet

On October 5 the Parti québécois, led by Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, won a minority government: 59 of 127 seats, short of the 64 needed for a majority, on about 28% of the vote. All counts are preliminary: the Liberals have 40 seats and the Conservatives 19, and the outgoing Coalition avenir Québec won none. No energy minister had been reported as of October 6 (not rechecked since), and the new government has not yet said what it will do on Hydro-Québec, rates or the agreement with Newfoundland and Labrador to develop the Churchill Falls and Gull Island hydro sites.

The nearest thing to a signal predates the vote. On September 7 St-Pierre Plamondon said that tearing up the agreement “isn’t my intention” («Ce n’est pas mon intention») as long as the deal is good, and that he would check its details. That was a campaign statement about what he would do in power, not a decision.

Also in Québec: the Régie de l’énergie, the province’s energy regulator, ordered on September 14 a public hearing on Énergir’s proposed overhaul of how it divides natural-gas customers into classes and structures their distribution rates. That is a rate-design case, not a rate-level one. Requests to take part are due October 14, according to the Régie’s decision (in French).

New Brunswick: a new 20-year plan and a three-year rate request

NB Power published a new 20-year resource plan, reported on October 5. It calls for 500 MW of battery storage within a decade, proposes extending the life of the Point Lepreau nuclear station past its expected 2042 end, and explores 750 MW of new nuclear at the site by 2039 or 2040, though new nuclear is not in the plan’s base case. NB Power says the first 500 MW of batteries is cost-competitive with combustion turbines, though an executive said the bids received would need government help. It is not clear who approves the plan: NB Power’s own page says the provincial government, and the CBC report doesn’t say.

Alongside it, NB Power is asking the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board (NBEUB, the regulator that must approve its rates) for 5.5% increases every April for three years, which compounds to 17.4% by our arithmetic. The utility’s page puts the first year at about $13.25 a month for a home using 1,350 kWh, though the same page also gives a single-year 4.75% increase at about $10.90 for that home and two different filing dates, so its figures need checking against the filing. No hearing dates have been set. The Tantramar gas plant and the Mactaquac dam rebuild, both covered earlier, had no new milestones this period.

New Hampshire: a settlement on temporary gas rates

In the Liberty Utilities rate case, which covers natural gas rather than electricity, Liberty asked the Commission on October 1 to approve a settlement it says it reached with the state Department of Energy and the Consumer Advocate for temporary rates: $7.27 million a year, against the $10.93 million Liberty asked for, starting November 1 if the Commission approves. Liberty left half of its investment in a business-systems project out of temporary rates and agreed to keep current customer charges, for temporary rates only. The Conservation Law Foundation and Rep. Maggie Goodlander are parties but take no position on the temporary-rate settlement. The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission set October 6 to hear the temporary request; whether it met, and what it decided, is not known. The permanent request, about $35.8 million as reported last month by InDepthNH, is still pending.

The state’s preliminary nuclear road map was due around the end of September and no report of its publication turned up.

Vermont: the rule that decides what rooftop solar is paid

Last month’s briefing noted that Vermont’s Public Utility Commission had opened a net-metering rulemaking. Its order opening the case (26-1786-RULE, on September 9) says net-metering has built more than 390 MW of Vermont’s 600-plus MW of distributed solar, and that this has shifted the state’s peak demand to after sundown, when solar isn’t producing. It notes that a home system certified in 2026 is paid about 15.7 cents per kWh for excess power, against about 10.5 cents for a utility-scale distributed solar facility, and says it will test whether that gap is justified. It also says it will look at compensation that encourages systems to be placed where the grid can take them, citing curtailment already happening around Sheffield and Highgate in the north. The first workshop was October 2, and the Commission expects more.

Adoption: public charging stations

The Alternative Fuels Data Center counts charging stations in Canada the same way as in the U.S., so this is the one adoption measure that can be set side by side. Each sub-region is reported on its own.

Québec has about 3.4 times the stations of the three states together. These totals shift as records are added and retired, so the small change from last month’s count isn’t a trend. Source: DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station API, queried October 12, 2026. Counts are of stations marked available and public. New Brunswick’s records are the staler ones, with some last confirmed in 2024, so its count may include listings that are out of date. Heat-pump, solar and wind uptake data were not queried.

A correction

Last month’s post gave CMP’s rate request as “roughly $18 a month,” a figure from the Portland Press Herald’s August 29 report, which said the full request “could raise monthly bills by $18 over the current cost.” CMP’s filing, as the PUC’s order recites it, puts the full $189 million request at $11.06 a month (6.72%) for an average residential customer, with the temporary part at about $7. We don’t know why the two figures differ, so the order’s is the one to use. A dated note has been added to the earlier post; its original sentence is kept.

Worth watching next month

• Maine — DOER’s filing of the net energy billing successor; any move by CMP to reconsider the denial or seek temporary rates again; the first contracts for the northern Maine wind and line.
• New Hampshire — the Commission’s order on Liberty’s temporary rates, and whether the nuclear road map is published.
• Vermont — further workshops in the net-metering rulemaking.
• Québec — the new cabinet, especially who holds the energy portfolio, and the government’s position on the Churchill Falls agreement and Hydro-Québec rates.
• New Brunswick — NBEUB hearing dates for the rate request, and who approves NB Power’s resource plan.
• Regional — whether ISO-NE signs agreements for the $2.20 billion Maine line.