By Nate Jones

Staff Writer 

Residents of the southeastern portion of Kennebunk may have to begin paying their electric charges to Kennebunk Light and Power District (KLPD) rather than Central Maine Power (CMP), if a bill passed in the state senate last week is approved by the house and signed by Gov. John Baldacci. 

The bill, LD 1221, has been largely supported by Kennebunk residents, and could have implications for power distributors statewide.

“There could be many unintended consequences above this specific instance,” said John Carrol, CMP public spokesperson.

Carrol said CMP is concerned the passing of LD 1221 will set a precedent which could upset 100 years of boundary agreements between power companies by circumventing the authority of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), which regulates power, phone, gas and water industries in the state.

LD 1221 would amend legislation Kennebunk put forth in 1903 which created a boundary line between the downtown area and the coastal southeastern portion of the town, preventing KLPD from offering electrical services there. Peter Hansen, chairman of the Citizens for Electrical Equity in Kennebunk (CEEK), said the original intent of the legislation, which was destroyed in an Augusta fire, its was to save the local power company, KLPD, from having to provide power in a coverage area that was largely uninhabited and was prevalent to storm damage due to it’s proximity to the ocean.

“The town charter allows [KLPD] to provide the entire town with power, but [KLPD] doesn’t have access because of the legislature,” Hansen said.

The CEEK organization has been a strong supporter of LD 1221, arguing that residents who live in the southeast portion of town are still responsible for KLPD’s debt risk, as the non-profit organization was chartered by the town, but do not have access to KLPD services, Hansen said. 

In a November 2006 referendum more than 5,000 residents voted on the issue, with 89 percent supporting the option for KLPD to expand its coverage area.

Sharon Staz,general manager and treasurer of KLPD, said this is not the first time they have worked with CEEK to eliminate the boundary, as they unsuccessfully submitted a similar bill, LD 808, into legislation in 2001. The bill did not pass the second reading in the state senate.

“The vote was strictly partisan, which was unfortunate” Staz said.

Kennebunk Light and Power District then filed a petition to the Maine Public Utility Commission (PUC) in 2002 to become a second utility provider in the area, where CMP had been providing electricity for residents for more than 100 years, Carrol said.

In PUC deliberations concerning the petition, Central Maine Power argued they offered the same services as KLPD, reinforcing an Maine Public Service (MPS) statement “that KLPD must show either that CMP is not offering a particular type of service or that an offered service is inadequate.” The PUC determined they could not enforce the petition based on the desire of the public based on cost alone, stating in their denial of the petition: 

[If lower prices alone sufficed to allow entry by a second utility, the concepts of utility franchises, service areas and a coherent, stable public utility system would be meaningless, and utility boundaries would be in a constant state of flux.]

“This is an extension of confiscation. We’re being forced to negotiate a sale,” Carrol said. “It’s the implications down the road that really concern us.”

The PUC denied the petition in 2003.

“In order to make that kind of a service territory change, we would have to see that consumers were not getting adequate service or there are qualitative differences in services offered by the two companies. [KLPD]’s petition completed neither of those tests,” said Fred Bever, a PUC spokesperson.

Staz said KLPD considered the PUC’s vote a significant step toward providing power for the entire town by bringing the various concerns of the different organizations involved into the public eye. 

“We thought ‘OK, we’ll go back to the legislature,” she said.

In forming their new bill, LD 1221, CEEK has made efforts to address the concerns raised by the PUC in a number of different studies, including one conducted by an electrical engineer who is a member of CEEK, Hansen said. In an effort to illustrate a difference in KLPD and CMP services, the engineer monitored the voltage quality of meters in both companies’ coverage areas for 30 months. 

The study found CMP utilities were almost twice as likely to experience outages, which would last five times as long as KLPD outages.  

Voltage surges and sags were also more prevalent in the CMP coverage area according to the study, which Hansen said can be damaging to sensitive electrical motors commonly found in the home.

“The issue is service,” Hansen said. “Central Maine Power doesn’t trim the trees until after the power is out. KLPD does proactive tree trimming.”

Hansen said the bill does not necessarily mean lower utility prices for current CMP customers either, as LD 1221 stipulates any sale subsequent of the boundary removal will require the purchaser to provide stranded costs to the seller.

“We might even have to pay more, but we’d be willing to do that,” he said.

Carrol said CMP views KLPD’s continuing endeavors to eliminate the boundary line as an effort to force CMP into selling the 1,525 meter service area. 

“The best customer service [CMP] could provide their customers with is to sell,” Staz said, adding that CMP rejected an offer by KLPD to buy the service area for $1.3 million in 2007.

“We don’t have an interest in selling it. We like providing service in that area,” Carrol said. 

State Sen. Nancy Sullivan, who said she has been involved with the project since 2001, and equated it to have “David versus Goliath” aspects, is representing the bill, which was scheduled to be in the house after the Post’s deadline.

To contact Nate Jones call 282-4337 x233 or email news@kennebunkpost.com