MAINE MONITOR • July 1, 2022
Maine’s transition to clean energy hinges on a wholesale transformation of the electrical grid. Several laws passed in recent years may improve grid planning, but legislating institutional change in the utility field could prove challenging. A recent decision by the Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) points up how investor-owned utilities still steer the grid-planning process and how often they operate with clear conflicts of interest and a fuzzy understanding of their own systems. That’s a big problem since the PUC often defers to the presumed expertise of utilities in its decision-making. First established in 1914, the PUC has been operating in much the same manner for a very long time. Like the grid itself, the Commission needs an overhaul.