PORTLAND, Maine — Emera Maine on Friday filed an appeal with regulators asking them to reconsider excluding its costs for moving a Bar Harbor substation to a new location from the utility’s most recent request to raise rates.
Costs for the substation were just part of a distribution increase request that regulators cut by more than half in an uncommon slap on the wrist for the utility.
The company on Friday asked regulators to reopen that portion of the case and to consider whether the utility acted prudently in deciding to move the substation, a standard considered when regulators decide whether a utility can recover certain costs from ratepayers.
Emera Maine had requested raising rates by more than $2.40 per month to the distribution portion of bills for an average customer, using about 550 kilowatt-hours per month.
Regulators instead approved the utility raising those monthly rates for the average by $1.07. In total, it adds $3 million to the company’s distribution revenue, or a 3.7 percent increase.
The company’s request in part sought to recover its costs for its Acadia substation in Bar Harbor, originally projected to cost $5 million. After a lawsuit from neighbors, the company agreed to move the substation to a new location.
Regulators disputed whether all of the utility’s ratepayers should bear the cost of that decision, which resulted in spending $3.4 million more on the substation. They decided the utility had only demonstrated that it could recover $5 million in costs for the project, but left open the possibility that it could recover the rest at a later time.