By Renee Worthing 

Staff Writer 

While Citizens for Electrical Equity in Kennebunk (CEEK) were encouraged when Gov. John Baldacci signed LD1221, a bill which allows about 1,500 Lower Village residents to be included in Kennebunk Light and Power District’s (KLPD) service area, Central Maine Power (CMP) Spokesman John Carroll said CMP is not willing to sell its assets.

Carroll said CMP is “as willing as KLPD would be to sell their assets.”

“We’ve been very clear about that (selling),” Carroll said. “Our position has not changed. Our position has been clear for years.”

He said the bill still requires a willing seller and a willing buyer and CMP is not willing to sell.

The bill, signed March 19, amended the charter of the Kennebunk Light and Power District.

Since 1903, Kennebunk has been divided into two electrical service areas. While the downtown area is largely served by Kennebunk Light and Power District, the southeastern coastal area receives power service from CMP.

However, 89 percent of Kennebunk voters indicated they wanted KLPD to provide service for the entire town on a non-binding Nov. 7, 2006 referendum.

KLPD manager Sharon Staz said the signing of the bill accomplished two of CEEK’s major goals.

“The first was it gave KLPD the right to a defined territory,” she said. “The second was it explicitly states that KLPD has the authority to purchase CMPs assets.”

Staz said the next step for Kennebunk is to put the question to referendum again in June.

She said while she anticipates the referendum question passing easily, the “uphill struggle will come with trying to force the sale.”

She said she hoped CMP could be “convinced” that allowing KLPD to provide service is “reasonable.”

However, Carroll said before a purchase price could be established KLPD would need to have an appraisal of CMPs assets at a cost of about $100,000. He said the cost of an appraisal would be passed on to KLPD customers.

“Why would a KLPD customer want to spend more money for an appraisal if CMP is unwilling to sell?” Carroll asked. “Is that a responsible use of rate payers money?”

He said CMP owed its customers two things.

“One is not to encourage false enterprise with false expectations and, two, that CMP will make the best decision for its customers,” Carroll said.

Carroll also said KLPD’s revenue declined in recent years. KLPD’s entire revenue was $1.54 million last year.

“Their general expenses are $676,000,” Carroll said. “Plus the additional cost of appraising CMP’s assets and purchasing them. Can they afford that?”

Staz said the issue was about service, responsibility and local control.

CEEK Chairman Peter Hanson said while all Kennebunk residents are responsible for KLPD’s debts, not all residents are able to participate in its service.

Carroll said when the boundary line was drawn in 1903, KLPD did not want the Lower Village area because its close proximity to the ocean makes the equipment prone to storm damage.

“If it had been an intolerable injustice, it (the boundary) would have been corrected sometime in the past 100 years,” Carroll said.

Staz said KLPD attempted to have the boundary line removed with the submission of a similar bill, LD808 in 2001, but the bill did not pass the second reading at the state senate.

KLPD then filed a petition to the Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) in 2002 in a bid to become a second utility provider in the town, but the petition was denied in 2003 because it failed to prove CMP customers were not getting adequate service or that there were vast differences in service by the two companies.

“KLPD is a wonderful service,” Hanson said.

He said while KLPD is able to respond quickly to outages, downed power lines and other power emergencies, CMP “takes hours,” noting the nearest station, in Alfred, is 26 miles away. 

However, Carroll said CMP is accountable to the PUC and must meet PUC’s guidelines for frequency and duration of its outages.

“We meet the criteria almost without exception every year,” he said.

State Sen. Nancy Sullivan, who sponsored LD 1221, issued a press release after the signing of the bill.

“I am really overjoyed that this bill has received such tremendous support,” Sullivan said. “The CEEK Committee members and the residents of Kennebunk have truly won a monumental battle and they are to be commended for the efforts.”

But Carroll said it was “unproductive process.”

“It takes up time and resources,“ Carroll said. “They (KLPD) are a small company. We would rather this issue go away. We don’t want to spend more of our rater payer money discussing and debating this.”

CMP’s parent company Energy East provides power and natural gas to nearly three million customers in New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued an order Dec. 6, 2007, approving the purchase of Energy East Corporation by Iberdrola, a Bilbao, Spain-based company.

Iberdola’s offer to buy Energy East is being reviewed by utility commissions in the states Energy East operates.

Carroll said Iberdrola’s offer has already been reviewed by Maine and is currently being reviewed by New York, but the commission in each state must approve the sale before it can be finalized.

To contact Renee Worthing, email news@kennebunkpost.com or 282-4337 ext. 240.