PORTLAND, Maine — About 2,800 Emera Maine customers who bought electricity supply from the company People’s Power are set to get a credit on their power bills to correct improper fees the company charged to customers in 2013.
The Maine Public Utilities Commission on Thursday announced the refunds would start appearing on customers’ bills starting March 30, which comes after a long dispute between regulators and the now bankrupt company.
In a January order from the PUC, the commission said it started communicating with the company in late 2014, seeking more information in response to complaints that the company tacked onto bills a “basic service charge” of $25 per month.
The company shortly after was suspended from purchasing power by the regional grid administrator, ISO-New England, and in March 2014 asked the commission to revoke its license as a competitive electricity provider in Maine and return a $100,000 deposit it made to acquire that license.
The PUC did not return that fund to the company amid complaints about the service charge. That fund and a separate collection of about $20,000 held by Emera Maine will replenish the $128,071 in inappropriate charges the PUC found the company made.
The deposit and funds held by Emera total $127,254, the commission stated in its order, which is enough to reimburse 99.4 percent of the improper fees from the competitive electricity provider.
The PUC found that People’s Power also attempted to collect the basic service charge from its customers on Central Maine Power’s network, but CMP did not pass along that fee.
Competitive providers operate as an alternative to the standard offer price, which is set by the PUC every year and available to every grid-connected residential customer.
Those electricity suppliers quickly gathered up about one-quarter of all customers in the state but their market share has dwindled in the last year as regional electricity prices have gone up. In Emera’s coverage area, competitive providers took up about 15 percent of the market in October 2013, but that number was down to about 9.7 percent in January 2015.