Electricity Maine will be required to refund about 20,000 customers and pay a $315,000 fine as part of a settlement reached with the Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) over unfair billing practices.
This settlement was reportedly approved by the Maine PUC Wednesday, ending a lengthy investigation into the company after it switched customers to variable rate contracts without their consent.
When these rate changes were made, customers saw notable price increases, going up for some by hundreds of dollars, according to the Bangor Daily News.
During a four month period between late 2022 and early 2023, the Maine PUC received 125 complaints regarding the situation.
“Electricity Maine customers were overcharged by millions of dollars compared with what they would have paid had they paid the standard offer price for electricity,” Public Advocate William Harwood reportedly said Wednesday morning.
“Given the company’s unsatisfactory practices in Maine over the last few years, it’s my fervent hope that this will remind them to respect our laws of fair trade,” Harwood continued.
The PUC rejected an earlier version of this settlement in May because they felt it did not adequately address Electricity Maine’s repeated violations. Maine Public had previously reported that the state’s public advocate was seeking to have Electricity Maine’s license revoked as a result of their conduct.
Testimony offered to the Maine PUC by the public advocate last fall indicated that the switch from fixed to variable contracts had resulted in customers’ price per kilowatt hour nearly doubling.
“[Electricity Maine] claim that they sent some notices. A lot of customers told our office, told the PUC, that they never got any notice. And even if you read the notice that was provided, it didn’t provide the price that was going to be charged,” Senior Counsel for the Public Advocate’s Office Brian Marshall had said.
The refunds which Electricity Maine will now be required to give customers will cover up to three months worth of prior charges.
As of the publication of this article, Electricity Maine does not appear to have issued a statement on the settlement.
As a result of Maine’s electric industry being restructured in 2000, customers have the option of choosing between a standard rate offer and a “competitive electricity provider,” such as Electricity Maine.
While the utility companies themselves remain fully regulated by the Maine PUC, the generation or supply portion is subject to competition, according to the Maine Office of the Public Advocate.
Finance website Market Watch reported in September that Maine had one of the highest per kilowatt-hour electricity costs in the country as of January 2024 at 25.89 cents, 68 percent higher than the national average.
Only five states were found to have higher per kilowatt-hour costs, including Hawaii, Rhode Island, California, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.
