Task Force Releases Report on Modernizing Maine’s Electric Grid

On April 14, 2020, the Nature Conservancy and The Great Plans Institute announced the final report of the Maine Utility Regulatory Reform and Decarbonization Initiative (MURRDI) which outlines a series of steps Maine can take to modernize its electric grid in order to achieve the state’s climate action goals. The MURRDI group was comprised of stakeholders from more than 20 organizations, government entities, and businesses, including Verrill attorney James Cohen, who met in nine half-day sessions beginning in the fall of 2020. The final report of the MURRDI group features nine consensus-based recommendations to aid in successfully achieving Maine’s clean energy and climate goals.

A key purpose of the group was to build on the momentum across the U.S. to reduce carbon, provide affordable power, and to further align electric utility systems. In Maine, the group acknowledged that a number of new clean energy laws had been enacted over the past few years, but the group also acknowledged that more work was needed to achieve the goals of these initiatives. The stakeholder group discussed both challenges and opportunities of these initiatives, including how they could be best tackled from a variety of perspectives. The recommendations included in the report are categorized as follows:

1. A Holistic Grid Planning Process
2. Building on the Vision Statement of the New England States Committee on Electricity (NESCOE)
3. Load Flexibility Enabled by Dynamic Rate Designs
4. Exploring a Distribution System Market Framework
5. Electric Vehicle Fast Charger Deployment
6. Interconnection Data Sharing
7. Fostering Innovation
8. Transmission Development in Northern Maine
9. Maine PUC Consideration of Climate, Equity, and Environmental Justice

Click here to access the full report from MURRDI.