Utility Steps In To Default Service Role, Seeks That Administrative Costs Be Recovered From All Customers, Not Only SOS Customers

Emera Maine - Maine Public District (Maine Public Service) will serve as the Standard Offer provider for its large customer class for the period April 1, 2017 through December 31, 2019, under an alternative default service mechanism that was approved after an RFP did not produce any qualifying bids

As previously reported, under the alternative structure at Emera Maine - Maine Public District, a standard offer price of 8.325 cents/kWh was set effective on April 1, 2017, but the price will be subject to quarterly price changes as needed depending on the actual cost to serve customers.

Emera Maine - Maine Public District stated in an application approved by the PUC that it intended to enter into a contract with Algonquin Energy Services to perform its duties as Standard Offer provider. However, Emera Maine - Maine Public District said that the supplier agreement with Algonquin Energy Services would only provide for 1 MW of energy and capacity, and thus EME-MPD may need to execute other supplier agreements over the course of the proposed term if additional customers migrate into this class.

Notably, in its application, Emera Maine - Maine Public District proposed that its administrative costs to provide default service, namely third party costs to administer the schedule and to perform marketing functions as well as in-house labor costs associated with administering Standard Offer service, be tracked and subsequently included in the stranded cost to be shared by all large class customers, not just those on Standard Offer service.

The PUC did not explicitly address this part of Emera Maine - Maine Public District's proposal in an order approving EME-MPD's application

The PUC did state that EME-MPD was authorized to incur various administrative costs related to the provisions of Standard offer service, and stated, "While EME-MPD may recover certain administrative costs, the Commission will review the nature of those costs in the stranded costs proceeding or proceedings."

Docket No. 2016-00302