CMP delivery costs to see slight drop in July bills

Electric delivery prices for most electricity customers in Maine are about to go down.

Central Maine Power announced today that its delivery prices for residential customers will go down by 1.3 percent effective July 1. For a typical customer using 550 kilowatt-hours of electricity a month, this will mean a 60-cent decrease on a monthly bill. The decrease, while modest, reflects the company's long-standing focus on keeping its prices stable.

Prices for commercial and industrial customers are going down as well.

"Our efforts to deliver safe, reliable service while keeping prices as low as possible are paying off," said Doug Herling, president and CEO of CMP. "While this is a modest decrease, there are many families who can use all the help they can get, and we're happy to provide it."

CMP's delivery prices include three primary components - distribution, transmission, and stranded costs. The distribution component - which covers the costs of maintaining the roadside poles and lines that serve most homes and businesses - is the largest of the three, and has remained relatively flat since the company's current pricing structure was approved in the fall of 2014.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission approved new distribution prices in deliberations today, following similar action on stranded costs earlier this month. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission sets transmission prices.

Herling adds that the July 1 price decrease comes despite the company enduring its worst storm in history last October.

"Savings from the new federal tax laws offset the incremental costs from the October storm," he said. "We're happy to pass along the tax savings to our customers as a price reduction."