FREEPORT — Mainers condemned Central Maine Power Co.’s request to increase distribution rates and expressed doubt in the company’s ability to improve service at a public hearing at the Hilton Garden Inn Tuesday evening.

Speaking to members of the Public Utilities Commission in sworn testimony, more than a dozen attendees charged that the proposed increase — roughly $35 a month by late 2030 — would hurt the state’s most vulnerable residents. They said the request comes as households across southern Maine are already feeling the pinch of increased costs across the board.

CMP last month asked the Public Utilities Commission for permission to increase its annual revenue by about $400 million through incremental hikes between 2026 and 2031. For customers, that would mean an additional $420 per year once the plan is fully implemented.

That additional revenue would go toward hiring hundreds of workers and installing stronger poles, upgraded substations and better protected wires in an effort to improve the reliability of CMP’s grid, the company has said. CMP is the largest electric utility in the state, serving about 660,000 residents and businesses.

The plan has prompted some of the strongest backlash in years, with more than 700 public comments already filed by Tuesday’s hearing. The company’s last rate case, in 2022, received 89 public comments. Like the public comments, the testimony offered Monday was overwhelmingly opposed to the rate increase.

‘BARELY GETTING BY’

John Glowa, an independent candidate for governor and South China resident, gave the evening’s first comment.

“How many Mainers have a fixed income and are barely getting by?” he asked. “This rate increase will hurt those who are most vulnerable: the elderly and the poor.”

Other commenters, like Cape Elizabeth resident Marcia Taylor, 72, said they did not trust CMP to follow through on its promises of a stronger and more reliable grid.

“I wish I believed that our utility rates going up would result in us having better service,” Taylor told commissioners. “I fear that this rate hike sets the stage for yet more rate hikes.”

Heather Sanborn, who represents ratepayers as the state’s Public Advocate, said attendance was high for a rate increase hearing, which usually only draws a handful of attendees. She said testifying at a public hearing is “a huge commitment” — setting aside travel time and possibly needing to line up solutions for things like child care.

“So the people who can actually be here tonight, I think each one represents dozens, hundreds, even thousands of Mainers who can’t check all those boxes to show up at a hotel in Freeport and spend and hour or two being heard,” Sanborn said.

CMP spokesperson Dustin Wlodkowski said the rate plan was “designed with customer affordability in mind” in light of higher costs of living overall. He said the company expected scrutiny and is committed to hearing the the public’s feedback on the plan.

“With our population growing and more of customers using electricity for electric vehicles and heat pumps, if we don’t act now, everyone will pay more in the future,” Wlodkowski said.

Maine’s electricity demand is predicted to double by 2050, according to the state’s latest energy plan.

PRE-HEARING PROTEST

Before the hearing began, about 20 protesters — part of a coalition called Fight the Hike — gathered along Park Street outside the Hilton Garden Inn. They held signs emblazoned with messages urging the commission to “STOP enabling CMP’s GREED” and condemning the hike as a “CORPORATE HANDOUT.”

Amy Eshoo, director of Maine Climate Action Now and a CMP ratepayer living in North Yarmouth, said Mainers already face a “huge energy burden.”

“This isn’t just like a distant political issue. That bill comes in their mailbox,” Eshoo said.

Troy Jackson, former president of the Maine Senate and a candidate for governor, joined protesters outside the hotel. In a brief interview, he said the public response this rate hike feels “bigger than before.”

“I think people are feeling a lot of squeeze right now, and this is one more thing on top of it,” Jackson said.

Tuesday marked the first of two public witness hearings in the case. The commission will hold another at 6 p.m. Wednesday at its headquarters: 26 Katherine Drive in Hallowell. Residents can also submit unsworn public comments online, referencing docket 2025-00218.

The Maine Office of the Public Advocate offers information and advice on how to effectively testify at a public hearing online.

Addressing the crowd as the hearing began, utilities commission Chair Philip L. Bartlett II noted that deliberation in the case is expected to last about a year.

“We’re still very early in this case, so we will be able to take the comments and feedback we hear from you, and we will use that,” Bartlett said. “You can expect a decision probably not until late next summer or early in the fall.”