Maine solar customers lose electric bill credits after project developers miss state payments

About 1,800 Maine households enrolled in community solar have lost their monthly bill credits after the companies running their solar projects failed to pay a state-required fee. Community solar lets people get credits on their electric bill for power generated by a shared solar project, rather than panels on their own roof. When the project owners missed payments tied to this program, utilities Central Maine Power and Versant Power stopped passing along the credits to affected customers, who are now being billed full price for their electricity.

The missed payments trace back to a Maine law, L.D. 1777, which added new capacity-based fees on solar project sponsors to help cover administrative costs and grid expenses linked to the state's Net Energy Billing program. The fees came after Maine's community solar market grew quickly enough to strain local power grids, prompting the state to adjust how costs are shared. Some project developers have pushed back hard: eleven solar companies have sued the Maine Public Utilities Commission in federal court, arguing that applying these charges retroactively is unconstitutional and hurts their projects' finances.

For now, state regulators and Maine's Office of the Public Advocate are monitoring which project sponsors still owe money. Once a sponsor pays what it owes, utilities are expected to restore the missing credits and apply them retroactively to affected customers' bills. If you subscribe to a community solar project in Maine and have noticed missing credits, this dispute is the likely cause, and a resolution depends on your project's sponsor settling up with the state.