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The Maine Public Utilities Commission is the Maine agency that regulates the operation of the lines. Send electricity, broadband and water equipment. It hears requests from electricity distributors including CMP and Versant and sets rates and rules for distribution and purchase by end users. The three PUC commissioners are relying on the work of their extended staff to implement recent legislation in the areas of increasing renewable energy and strictly managing the electric system.
After Maine’s latest energy law was passed in 2019, private investors and solar companies quickly began investing in community solar projects in Maine that will ensure they receive a significant return on investment. Numerous community solar projects offering 10%-15% lower electricity rates quickly fill their subscribers and get calls for CMP to connect to the grid.
Grid connection for most of these projects only under 5kW time and staff Technicians and electricians to add transformers to upload electricity to a higher transmission line. Our family joined the energy market in June 2021 and can start buying solar credits in August. Currently there appears to be a backlog of fully booked community solar projects waiting to be connected and start delivering electricity to the grid and credit bookings. I will talk about the benefits of community solar and the participation process at the end of winter, which is the best time to book, so you will start receiving and paying solar production credits when the light increases, and the sun is at a higher level. To create more solar electricity.
Mainers have the Office of the Public Advocate, which advocates for high-quality electric rates, available when the PUC makes decisions about electric rates, services and practices. Maine’s Public Advocate, William Harwood, and his staff of attorneys also intervened at the federal level for lower electricity rates and on interstate gas and electricity transmission issues. Go to maine.gov/meopa to see how these attorneys are helping consumers keep prices low and find questions to ask community solar providers. The PUC will have more power to improve electric service with new legislation passed by the Maine Legislature this year.
Microgrid is a smaller system for the production and distribution of electricity that serves universities, important service systems such as hospitals, large industries or businesses. The former naval base at Brunswick Landing has an advanced electrical distribution system designed to operate independently of the large power grid in the event of war or other emergencies. This microgrid uses electricity produced in the process of converting methane to fuel supplied by the Brunswick/Topsham wastewater treatment plant. The Brunswick Redevelopment Authority, which oversees the management of the old Navy property, has added a 1.5MW solar array and has plans for a second methane digester to increase Brunswick Landing’s green energy supply from the current 65%. Currently, the rest of Brunswick Landing’s electricity is purchased from outside wind sources.
Colleges and universities, including the University of San Diego with 45,000 people, have created microgrids to use cheaper fossil fuels for electricity and heating purposes. Gas and gas engines and a 1.2 megawatt solar cell installation provide 95% of the heating and cooling and 85% of the community’s electricity needs.
The Rockefeller Institute has partnered with Tata Power to install microgrids in 200 rural villages in India since 2015. This new access to electricity will provide irrigation for farmers and will support hundreds of new rural enterprises for the more than 100 million Indians who currently do not have electricity. . A wonderful book I read recently was “The Boy Who Harvested the Wind” by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, about a brilliant boy in Malawi whose family can no longer afford to send him to school, but with a few books, he is surprised. His community by making the first wind turbine they had ever seen from waste. Discovered by the Malawi Government Education Executive, William became a TED Fellow, attended Dartmouth College and now works for his wind energy project to provide electricity and basic irrigation technology to farming communities across Malawi, which were flooded, and farming communities devastated by Tropical Storm Anna. in January.
Distributed power is the term for local sources of electricity that are used near where the power is generated. Local production has the advantage of reducing the loss of electricity, which increases with the distance from the source to the final use. As a result, less electricity is lost through transmission as Maine continues to develop community solar projects than if Maine were to import large hydropower from Quebec. Run-of-river hydroelectric plants and municipal waste incinerators are old Maine examples of distributed power generation. For residential use, electricity can be provided by solar photovoltaic panels, small wind turbines, natural gas cells or diesel generators or emergency backup gas. An example of industrial distributed energy in Maine is a manufacturing facility that burns wood waste to produce both heat and electricity for a wood processing plant.
Distributed electricity generation has increased in the United States in response to the incentives and recommendations of many states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with renewable energy sources. Maine has been an early adopter of wind energy, home, business and community solar systems. Maine’s net energy billing law allows individuals and businesses that generate distributed electricity to receive credits for that electricity at the current proposed rate of $0.12/kWh. Community solar members who subscribe to the 10% program can reduce their subscription rate to $0.102/kWh or $0.108/kWh if they subscribe to the 15% solar discount. Electric rates for all CMP customers will also include a $13.73 distribution fee.
The best way to lower your electricity bill is to reduce the use of high-powered appliances such as space heaters, hair dryers and clothes dryers. The humidity in the house is usually so low in the winter that clothes dry overnight in the basement or spare room. Outdoor clothing from spring through fall will give you the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors and let your clothes smell fresh while drying in the sun for a few hours.
Microgrid is an electricity distribution system that supplies local areas varying in size from individual homes to community or industrial electricity needs. How do microgrids benefit rural Mainers, especially in coastal and rural areas that often lose power from winter storms? Microgrid can be used with local energy sources to provide continuous electricity service during regional power outages or during peak periods. A microgrid combined with battery storage can be built to use electricity from wind power, community solar power or hydroelectric generators on a smaller scale than the current large wind turbines. In Unity, Maine, the Fairgrounds ran all of its electricity needs to feed and serve 25,000 people a day for three days from the sun and one small wind turbine.
Nancy Chandler studied animal behavior and anthropology at Stanford University, then earned a master’s degree in biological education in her home state of North Carolina at UNC Chapel Hill. She is passionate about teaching energy conservation and hopes to get you thinking about how to use energy efficiently to save both money and reduce greenhouse gases.
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Event: Edward M. Skillin
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