PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 18, 2024
Monthly bills for Central Maine Power Co. customers will go up by another $5 after state regulators on Tuesday approved the utility’s second rate increase in a week. The rate hike is to cover a nearly 50% increase in the amount the utility pays solar developers. State law incentivizes utilities to subsidize certain solar projects to further Maine’s climate goals and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The higher rates, which take effect July 1 and extend through June of next year, follow a roughly $10-a-month increase that the Maine Public Utilities Commission authorized last Tuesday. That rate hike was to reimburse CMP for $220 million it spent to restore power after destructive storms..