Program Background
Maine Public Service Company (MPS), an investor-owned transmission and distribution company, provides electric power transmission services to approximately 36,000 retail customer accounts in a 3,600 square mile area in northern Maine. Central Maine Power Company is also an investor-owned transmission and distribution company serving more than 596,000 customers in central and southern Maine.
The two companies entered into an agreement to study the feasibility of building a new transmission line from central Maine to Aroostook County to connect northern Maine to the New England electric grid to enhance competition, enable the development of renewable energy resources, and to improve service and reliability.
Presently, the MPS system is connected directly to the eastern Canadian electric power grid through New Brunswick. MPS does not currently benefit from a direct connection to the New England bulk power transmission system. MPS operates the MPS transmission system while the Northern Maine Independent System Administrator (NMISA) administers the northern Maine market in cooperation with the regional transmission operators.
Proposals to connect the MPS system to the New England power grid have been periodically reviewed for many years. More recently at the request of the Maine Legislature, the Maine Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) conducted a study of the Northern Maine Electricity Market and issued a report on May 3, 2007. The Commission concluded that “the competitive situation in northern Maine had gone from worrisome to one of obvious failure” and recommended further study of possible solutions to address the lack of competition, including the viability of a direct transmission connection of the MPS system to the New England electric grid.
Within Maine, the MPS system is separated by a 25-mile gap between the MPS lines in Houlton and the MEPCO transmission lines to southern and central Maine that pass through Haynesville. The first phase of the feasibility study evaluated a transmission interconnection capable of handling customer needs and existing generation in the MPS service territory. The second phase of the study investigated an interconnection capable of also handling up to 800 MW of new wind generation in the MPS service area. Lastly, CMP and MPS will evaluate the feasibility of a third 345 kV tie to eastern Canada in northern Maine.