PORTLAND, Maine — Staff of the state’s utilities regulating commission have recommended against designating a Portland company as the lead developer of “smart grid” technologies that would allow the state to meet electric grid demands without building more transmission lines.
In an examiner’s report filed with the Maine Public Utilities Commission, the commission’s staff recommended against designating GridSolar LLC as the state’s smart grid coordinator but directed the commission to solicit proposals to fill the role of solving transmission and distribution problems with new technologies, dubbed nontransmission alternatives.
“Notwithstanding our denial of the GridSolar petition … we find that there can be benefits from the presence in the state of a nonutility entity with the relevant expertise and a commercial interest in the development of (nontransmission alternatives),” the examiner’s report states.
The company suggests that it can solve transmission or distribution problems in Maine’s electric grid for less than building new power lines and associated infrastructure, which is one component of the bill all electricity customers pay.
The PUC let the company pilot its approach of reducing peak power demand in Boothbay, where it has promised to use solar power, energy storage and air conditioning units that operate at off-peak times to reduce the peak power demand for the peninsula in the summer.
The company has said greater reliance on its “smart grid” approach, in turn, defers or eliminates the need for an $18 million transmission upgrade to the peninsula.
The company has asked the PUC to approve similar projects near Portland, Waterville, the lakes region and the midcoast.
The commission is still reviewing whether those proposals will address a need for more transmission capacity in those areas, and it issued an order on Thursday denying a separate request from GridSolar to stop Central Maine Power Co. from moving ahead with construction of certain transmission project construction in Portland and the midcoast.
In denying GridSolar’s request to stop CMP’s construction activity, the commission directed CMP to submit its assessment of Portland-area transmission needs within three months.
CMP has already submitted its assessment of midcoast transmission needs. GridSolar has argued before the PUC that it can meet the expected power capacity demands for less than the cost of projects proposed by CMP for the midcoast area.