PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 11, 2021
Josh Teel stated that “power in Maine…is currently reliable” (June 9). He couldn’t be more wrong. The U.S. Energy Information Administration tracks power outages across the nation. For 2017, Maine was dead last in reliability; in 2018, Maine was fifth from the bottom (in the bottom 10 percent), and in 2019, the latest data available, Maine was dead last again. From 2010 through 2015, at a cost of $1.4 billion, Central Maine Power invested in the Maine Power Reliability Program, to improve the transmission system. The outcome was that CMP’s earnings before interest, taxes and amortization increased by more than 120 percent. Yet, over 1 million CMP customers lost power in a 2017 October storm and Maine’s power reliability remains in the bottom 10 percent or worse. Dismiss CMP and Versant and move on. ~ Carlton Wilcox, New Gloucester