MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • January 29, 2023
Staging thousands of external contractors to help restore power as quickly as possible after a storm has become the new normal in America’s utility industry. But this practice comes at a price. Securing and accommodating an army of out-of-state lineworkers and tree crews has become the leading driver of storm restoration costs for CMP and Versant Power, Maine’s two investor-owned electric utilities. Over the past five years, the average cost of storms considered normal or moderate in nature in CMP’s service area has totaled $27.2 million annually. But that doesn’t count storms like the two last month, which are deemed “extraordinary” if they exceed $15 million. A typical home customer already is paying $3 to $4 a month to cover the cost of past storms. That tab is bound to grow. More-frequent and more-intense storms, linked to a changing climate, are causing more outages.