HALLOWELL (NEWS CENTER Maine) -- The Maine Public Utilities Commission concluded Tuesday that Central Maine Power and Emera Maine responded "reasonably" to the storm that left a record number of people in the dark last October.
The unanimous decision made by three commissioners brought an end to the ongoing investigation about whether Maine's two largest electric utilities properly handled the powerful Oct. 29 storm. Nearly 470,000 CMP customers lost power in the storm, and it took workers nearly ten days to fully restore service.
At Tuesday's meeting, PUC Chairman Mark Vannoy said that both CMP and Emera adequately prepared in the days leading up to the storm, but the wind strength was much greater than was expected.
With hundreds of thousands of power outages and wind gusts of 60-70 MPH that ripped off branches and tore down entire trees, October's storm was one of the worst in Maine's history. The damage from that storm, by some measures, was more severe than the Ice Storm of '98.
CMP came under fire in the days and months that followed, culminating in a July class action lawsuit filed by hundreds of its customers who claimed their bills doubles, even tripled in some cases.
The PUC is still involved in two separate investigations of Central Maine Power: one into the power company's return on equity and the other into its billing and customer service practices. These investigations remain ongoing and are not connected to this latest vote regarding how CMP and Emera Maine responded to the October wind storm.
CMP has said it is working to improve its smart meter system.