PORTLAND, Maine (AP) The Maine Public Utilities Commission says an independent audit faults Central Maine Power leadership for errors introduced by a new billing system, but found those errors to be “minimal.”
It concluded that CMP meters are accurate and blamed complaints about high bills on cold weather that caused suppliers to raise rates.
Regulators who released the report by the Liberty Group on Thursday said the findings and conclusions will be subject to further review.
A lawsuit filed last summer alleges that nearly 300,000 CMP customers were overbilled last year, possibly by tens of millions of dollars.
CMP, a subsidiary of Avangrid, says it has been unable to identify any system problems that artificially increased electricity usage or bills, but the company stands ready to adjust customers’ accounts if billing errors are discovered.
