MAINE, USA — Maine's Public Utilities Commission ordered a preliminary investigation into Central Maine Power's management structure Tuesday.
The PUC commissioned and released an independent audit earlier this year, in which it identified problems with the corporate structure and how CMP managed issues within the company.
However, that same report found no serious issues with the company's metering system which customers had complained about, and originally prompted the audit.
Apart from the new probe, the PUC is also asking for a “performance plan,” spelling out how the company will maintain service quality in the coming years.
CMP lost out on roughly $10 million in earnings over an 18 month period, as ordered by the PUC for issues with customer service.
CMP released the following statement:
"CMP will continue to serve customers led by a strong Maine leadership team committed to operational excellence. Our Maine team has deep service and operational experience, particularly our new CEO, Joe Purington, who began at CMP this week and who will draw on his 28 years of operations experience with the company. As presented to the MPUC last week, CMP has made demonstrable improvements in our daily service to customers as measured by responsiveness to customer calls and billing accuracy and timeliness. Last Spring, the Liberty audit noted many steady improvements at CMP, and we remain committed to sustainable improvement across the company."
According to CMP spokesperson Catharine Hartnett, over the last 18 months, CMP has reached customer service improvement including answering more than 87% of customer calls within 30 seconds, providing timely, accurate bills over 99 percent of the time, and proactively applying a $25 credit to any bill that is not delivered on time.
