An Act To Eliminate Direct Retail Competition for the Supply of Electricity to Residential Consumers
Maine Legislature, Session 129, LD 1917
Committee: Energy, Utilities and Technology
Sponsors: WOODSOME
Amends: 35-A MRSA §3202, 35-A MRSA §3203, 35-A MRSA §3212

Legislative Document
No. 1917
S.P. 664
In Senate, December 24, 2019
An Act To Eliminate Direct Retail Competition for the Supply of 
Electricity to Residential Consumers
Submitted by the Office of the Public Advocate pursuant to Joint Rule 203.
Received by the Secretary of the Senate on December 20, 2019.  Referred to the Committee 
on Energy, Utilities and Technology pursuant to Joint Rule 308.2 and ordered printed.
DAREK M. GRANT
Secretary of the Senate
Presented by Senator WOODSOME of York.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  35-A MRSA §3202, sub-§1, as amended by PL 2007, c. 481, §1, is 
further amended to read:
1.  Right to purchase generation.  Beginning on March 1, 2000, all All 
nonresidential consumers of electricity have the right to purchase generation services 
directly from competitive electricity providers, except as provided in subsection 7.
Sec. 2.  35-A MRSA §3202, sub-§1-A is enacted to read:
1-A.  Transition of residential consumers served by competitive electricity 
providers.  Beginning no later than January 1, 2022, all residential consumers must be 
served by standard-offer service.  Beginning no later than December 1, 2020, competitive 
electricity providers are prohibited from adding new residential consumers, including any 
former customers who are not current customers as of December 1, 2020. For purposes of 
this subsection, "residential consumer" means a consumer defined as residential under the 
terms and conditions of the consumer's transmission and distribution utility.
Sec. 3.  35-A MRSA §3203, sub-§4, as amended by PL 2011, c. 284, §§2 to 4, is 
further amended to read:
4.  Consumer protection provisions.  As a condition of licensing, a competitive 
electricity provider that provides or proposes to provide generation service to a residential 
consumer or to a small commercial consumer or, before January 1, 2022, to a residential 
consumer:
A.  May not terminate generation service without at least 30-day prior notice to the 
consumer;
B.  Must offer service to the consumer for a minimum period of 30 days;
C.  Must allow the consumer to rescind selection of the competitive electricity 
provider orally or in writing within 5 days of initial selection;
D.  Must comply with all federal and state laws, federal regulations and state rules 
regarding the prohibition or limitation of telemarketing;
E.  Must provide to the consumer within 30 days of contracting for retail service a 
disclosure of information provided to the commission pursuant to rules adopted under 
subsection 3 in a standard written format established by the commission; and
F.  Must comply with any other applicable standards or requirements adopted by the 
commission by rule or order.
For purposes of this subsection, "residential consumer" means a consumer defined as 
residential under the terms and conditions of the consumer's transmission and distribution 
utility.  For purposes of this subsection, "small commercial consumer" means, in the case 
of a consumer served by an investor-owned transmission and distribution utility, a 
nonresidential consumer that meets the availability criteria to take service under a core 
customer class of the transmission and distribution utility that does not pay a demand 
charge to the transmission and distribution utility or, in the case of a consumer served by 
a consumer-owned transmission and distribution utility, a nonresidential consumer with a 
demand of 20 kilowatts or less.
Sec. 4.  35-A MRSA §3212, sub-§4, as amended by PL 2001, c. 528, §1, is 
repealed.
Sec. 5.  35-A MRSA §3212, sub-§4-C, as enacted by PL 2005, c. 677, Pt. B, §2, 
is amended to read:
4-C.  Authority to establish consider various contract lengths and terms.  For the 
purpose of providing over a reasonable time period the lowest price for standard-offer 
service to residential and small commercial customers, the commission, with respect to 
residential and small commercial standard-offer service, may shall, in addition to 
incorporating cost-effective demand response and energy efficiency pursuant to 
subsection 4-B and to the extent authorized in section 3210-C, incorporating the energy 
portion of any contracts entered into pursuant to section 3210-C, establish various 
consider bids of varying standard-offer service contract lengths and terms up to 10 years 
and fixed and variable pricing proposals.  The commission shall also take into account 
state renewable energy generation and climate change goals, including the 
encouragement, where appropriate, of economical distributed energy resources and 
beneficial electrification.  For the purposes of this subsection, "distributed energy 
resources" means small-scale electrical generation sources located close to where the 
generated electricity is used and "beneficial electrification" has the same meaning as in 
section 10102, subsection 3-A.
To assist the commission in administering standard-offer service, the commission shall 
designate or hire an employee whose primary responsibilities relate to monitoring 
wholesale power markets, long-term power supply planning, developing requests for 
proposals for standard-offer service, evaluating bids and administering standard-offer 
service.
SUMMARY
This bill eliminates retail-level competition for residential electricity customers and 
requires a more robust competitive process for selecting standard-offer service providers 
for residential and small commercial electricity customers.  It also requires the Public 
Utilities Commission to designate or hire an employee to assist the commission in 
administering standard-offer service.