Who could be a third-party operator? Here’s the test

As part of the legislation connected with Question 3, the Public Utilities Commission would determine that a transmission and distribution utility that serves more than 50,000 customers is considered “unfit” to operate if four or more of the conditions listed below are met.

Using this criteria, neither Central Maine Power not Versant could be considered for day-to-day management of Maine’s grid.

• The utility has consistently received low customer satisfaction ratings in a respected survey of United States utility customers, compared to similar-sized utilities, for at least two out of the past five years.
• The U.S. Energy Information Administration has found that the utility’s reliability, measured by the number of outage minutes per year, ranks among the lowest compared to its peers, for at least two out of the past five years.
• The utility has consistently charged residential utility rates that are estimated to be among the highest compared to similar U.S. utilities, for at least two out of the past five years.
• The utility has outsourced work valued at over $100,000 that could have reasonably been performed by qualified, nonexempt employees of the utility within the previous year.
• The utility owns critical infrastructure needed for the security and well-being of Maine, and is currently owned, either fully or partially (greater than 5%), by a foreign government.
• The utility, because of its corporate structure, requires customers to cover the costs of its corporate taxes and shareholder profits exceeding 10% on reasonable investments in transmission infrastructure, with little to no risk for poor performance.
• The utility requires customers to pay for 90% or more of the damages to its assets caused by extreme weather events, and may deny access to federal emergency assistance to mitigate or eliminate these costs.
• The utility in unable to place the needs of customers, workers, or Maine’s climate and connectivity goals ahead of the desire of shareholders to earn a profit.