Electricity Maine is set to begin sending out payments to eligible customers as part of a settlement reached with the Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) over unfair billing practices.

It has been estimated that, in total, about 20,000 Mainers will be paid in connection with this settlement.

Approved by the Maine PUC in October, the settlement ended a lengthy investigation into the company after it switched customers to variable rate contracts without their consent.

When these rate changes were made, customers saw notable price increases, going up for some by hundreds of dollars, according to the Bangor Daily News.

During a four month period between late 2022 and early 2023, the Maine PUC received 125 complaints regarding the situation.

Testimony offered to the Maine PUC by the public advocate last fall indicated that the switch from fixed to variable contracts had resulted in customers’ price per kilowatt hour nearly doubling.

“[Electricity Maine] claim that they sent some notices. A lot of customers told our office, told the PUC, that they never got any notice. And even if you read the notice that was provided, it didn’t provide the price that was going to be charged,” Senior Counsel for the Public Advocate’s Office Brian Marshall had said.

The payments now scheduled to be sent to customers will cover up to three months worth of charges.

According to the Bangor Daily News, the Office of the Public Advocate (OPA) has said that customers will receive these funds via debit cards. Depending upon how much of a refund to which a customer is entitled, a second round of payments may be mailed 190 days after the first.

The OPA went on to explain that the size of any given customer’s refund will be based on the length of time which they were charged a variable rate and the amount paid above the standard offer.

As a result of Maine’s electric industry being restructured in 2000, customers have the option of choosing between a standard rate offer and a “competitive electricity provider,” such as Electricity Maine.

While the utility companies themselves remain fully regulated by the Maine PUC, the generation or supply portion is subject to competition, according to the Maine Office of the Public Advocate.

Finance website Market Watch reported in September that Maine had one of the highest per kilowatt-hour electricity costs in the country as of January 2024 at 25.89 cents, 68 percent higher than the national average.

Only five states were found to have higher per kilowatt-hour costs, including Hawaii, Rhode Island, California, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.