On behalf of 1,100 members of the Central Maine Power team, thank you for continuing to trust in our company.
As we prepare to mark 125 years of service to Maine people, many of our customers are using the electricity we deliver in new ways: to power heat pumps to heat their homes, to charge the vehicle they drive to work and to connect electricity from solar panels to homes and communities.
At Central Maine Power, our priority continues to be delivering safe, reliable and affordable electricity while building a modern electric grid. From our response to the 2022 Christmas storm, to exceeding our customer service metrics for more than three years running, to being voted one of Maine’s best places to work, our company remains completely committed to our customers, our employees and to Maine.
At CMP, we are building the grid of the future. If we’re going to make any progress, it’s going to take collaboration and commitment. Not only from CMP, but from state leaders, elected officials, environmental groups, advocacy organizations and community and business leaders. It’s also going to take frank, honest and realistic conversations about how our collective goals and associated costs intersect and impact our customers.
Over the next year, you will hear us at CMP say a lot more about our vision for the grid of the future – here’s a little bit of what we’re going to say:
Every year, climate change exposes new vulnerabilities that require planning and investment. By the end of 2023, we will submit a Climate Change Protection Plan to the Maine Public Utilities Commission that outlines ways we propose to identify and quantify risk to the grid. Each year we see stronger, more frequent storms and we are working to improve the resilience of the power system against this growing threat, to ensure our communities have access to affordable, reliable, clean electricity when and where they need it.
We strongly support Maine’s clean energy transition and Maine’s Climate Action Goals. Part of that means connecting to the grid as many distributed resources, such as solar power, as we can. By the end of 2023, we anticipate Central Maine Power will have connected more than 500 MW of clean energy from community solar projects to our grid since 2019. That’s enough to power approximately 100,000 homes – and there’s more on the way.
Our success builds on that of our parent company, Avangrid, which is the third-largest renewable energy company in the United States. Across the U.S., Avangrid has nearly 9 GW of installed, emissions-free capacity and has completed more than 29,000 grid interconnections, representing more than 3.8 GW of Distributed Energy Resources, such as solar and storage.
We’re also facilitating rapid economic growth across Maine by connecting large users of electricity to our system. We’ve made significant upgrades to our electrical infrastructure, and are actively modeling usage scenarios to anticipate how populations will grow. Preparing today for the needs of tomorrow means our communities will keep thriving.
One of the best tools we have available to combat climate change is electrification. Whether it’s installing more heat pumps in homes, partnering with businesses and organizations to install charging stations, or creating pilot programs to better understand how and when our customers are using electricity, our team is building a smarter, stronger, more modern grid that can support our society’s growing and changing demand for electricity.
These changes won’t happen overnight. By leveraging the national network of our parent company as well as our global network, Iberdrola, Central Maine Power we can and will make progress toward accomplishing these goals – but we know we can’t do it alone. Our employees have the talent, dedication and commitment to collaborate with all stakeholders to deliver lasting solutions for Mainers.
This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity that we cannot miss.
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