BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 12, 2023
Green Mountain Power, which serves about 270,000 homes and businesses, submitted a plan to regulators on Monday asking for approval to invest $30 million to lease television-sized batteries to homeowners that would draw on clean energy from solar panels and wind turbines. The utility’s new Zero Outages Initiative aims to save on expensive grid repairs and expansions by investing another $250 million in stronger cables and buried power lines in vulnerable areas. It would seem natural for Maine to adopt a similar program, but while there is interest in expanding battery use in Maine, utilities here said they are unlikely to pursue a similar initiative any time soon due to legal constraints and high costs.