For CMP customers, 50-year outage estimates are reminder of utility’s broader problems

Following a nor’easter that has left roughly 138,000 Mainers without power Thursday, Central Maine Power customers are making light of erroneous outage estimates that would have them waiting almost 50 years, or until 2068, for their power to be restored.

“When your power’s been out 4 hours and the restoration time still says 2068, you might be in it for the long haul,” said Sarah Emery on Twitter.

On CMP’s official Twitter page, the company said the outage estimate of 2068 customers are seeing is inaccurate and that their “team of IT experts in Augusta has identified the cause and is working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”

Although customers were given an estimate time of 50 years, Catharine Hartnett, the manager of corporate communications with CMP, explained on the WGAN morning news show that the company needed to fully assess the damage caused by the storm before more accurate time estimates can be made.

“We need to better understand the severity and the nature of the damage before we can get around to estimating times,” she said.

“I’m not sure, but I feel like our frozen foods are going to absolutely thaw by 2068,” joked Twitter user Heath Miller. “So that’s unfortunate.”

Central Maine Power provide an ‘outage list’ for customers effected by downed power lines etc, which includes the estimated restoration time. I’m not sure, but I feel like our frozen foods are going to absolutely thaw by 2068, so that’s unfortunate. pic.twitter.com/ys0550vs8w — Heath Miller (@veryheathmiller) October 17, 2019

The widespread IT problem was the latest in a long line of problems for CMP. The utility has been under fire in recent months for widespread billing errors — often bankrupting Mainers already disproportionately burdened by high energy bills — that followed the installation of new meters and a severe windstorm in the fall of 2017

CMP has also seen a powerful and escalating public backlash to it’s proposal for a cross-state power line corridor and widespread opposition to a rate increase proposal made earlier this year.

Rep. Seth Berry (D – Bowdoinham), chair of the legislature’s energy committee, has proposed replacing CMP and Emera with a consumer-owned utility called the Maine Power Delivery Authority. His bill faced strong opposition from CMP and other industry lobbyists in the state legislature this year.

“Have no fear, CMP customers!” said Rep. Berry on Facebook in the wake of the recent outages. “We may have the most and longest outages in the country and among the highest delivery rates, but your power will likely be restored in just over 48 years.”

(Official Central Maine Power photo)