Phelps Turner is director of clean grid at Conservation Law Foundation.

Slowing the growth in monthly electric bills is top of mind for many households and businesses. That’s why nearly every Mainer should be relieved that the Maine Public Utilities Commission rejected Central Maine Power’s (CMP) five-year, $1.5 billion rate hike proposal. That’s a lot of money, especially for outdated, status-quo strategies that it’s time to move away from.

It’s clear that as we power more of our lives with electricity, we’ll need to make investments in the state’s power grid to keep things affordable, reliable and clean. But we don’t have to stick to the old ways of doing things, including how we pay for the transmission and delivery of that electricity.

There are proven tools and policies that can stabilize and even lower electricity bills, and now that CMP has been sent back to the drawing board, the utility has an opportunity to get it right. It must draft a new proposal that accounts for the reality of unaffordable, price-volatile electricity rates and the necessity of modernizing how we think about the electricity grid. This moment is also a crucial opportunity for the state’s other investor-owned utility, Versant, before filing its next request to the commission.

Conservation Law Foundation, our partners and our allies have long been involved in exploring modern, more affordable ways to bolster our electricity grid, balancing the need to invest with the strain we’re all feeling on our wallets. Utilities like CMP and others in the state should consider multiple solutions as they plan for the future, keeping reliability high while avoiding unnecessary costs for customers.

Performance-based regulation, or PBR, is a new and much fairer way to set electricity prices. It rewards utilities for delivering good service and penalizes them for not delivering good service, instead of simply spending more money. Under this approach, utilities earn profits by meeting goals that matter to all of us, like reducing power outages, speeding up solar hookups and keeping bills affordable.

States from Hawaii to Illinois are already using PBR to stabilize prices and accelerate the shift to cleaner, more reliable energy. In Maine, we’ve only scratched the surface of utility performance incentives. We can and must make sure our utilities are paid on performance and are not just pouring money into the system and passing the costs on to customers.

To make the most of the power grid we already have, utilities should start using proven tools that help electricity move more efficiently. Technologies like power flow controls and grid optimization can boost the capacity and reliability of the system that delivers power to our homes and businesses.

Additionally, we don’t always need new poles and miles of wires to improve our electricity grid. Traditional grid infrastructure, like poles and wires, is costly to install, maintain and repair after extreme storms. Smarter, cheaper solutions exist.

Utilities can make use of energy storage, energy efficiency, distributed generation and demand response programs to strengthen the grid, reduce costs, slash emissions and make it more resilient to storms and climate impacts. Energy that is generated or stored in locations at or near the point of electricity consumption — rather than at a central power plant — reduces the need for an expensive grid that delivers power over long distances.

New rate structures or incentives, including time-of-use rates and heat pump rates, help shift electricity demand from periods of higher consumption, like late afternoon/early evening, to periods of lower use, like early mornings. Tried-and-tested rates can shift demand and reduce the size of the power grid we need to serve during peak periods.

Developing and implementing those tools and policies will require the same type of political will and regulatory engagement we saw in the commission’s recent decision to reject CMP’s rate hike. The commission must keep that momentum going.

These solutions aren’t experimental. Other states, like Massachusetts and Illinois, have successfully and effectively implemented them. The choice is clear: regulators and utilities can stick with expensive, outdated strategies, or take proven steps to protect Maine families, businesses and our energy future.