Why upgrade our 1960s infrastructure. It works so well. /s

Just an article today that people can't grid tie their solar because it would overload the grid. WTF year do we live in? I see this being an issue in a really sunny populated state, but Maine's has the population of a decent sized city and we're not exactly getting 12 hours of direct sunlight everyday.

Sitting here with a generator running the pellet stove and fridge. They'll be "assessing" the outage until tomorrow. Greedy corporate fucks. Fuck CMP.

We should all install wood stoves and take CMP to small claims court to pay for them as they wouldn't be needed if their grid wasn't utter shit.

Lmao I have 3 jobs delayed right now because there are no electricians.

This is a result of unions and apprentice programs getting gutted in the years following Reagan, not CMP specific.

The cost of putting lines underground is literally order of magnitude 10x the cost of maintaining overhead for, what, 2-5 days a year without power for rural people?

If CMP became public, doubled their staff, and burried lines we would have the most expensive utility in the country for the benefit of a handful of days a year off service.

Exchange profit motive for bureaucracy and debt. I can't speak to how efficient the state is, but I was a federal employee for several years and the amount of inefficiency, bloat, and useless personnel that were basically impossible to fire was mindblowing.

13.5 billion is the number I've seen floated around. MPUC still sets the standard offer rates, we potentially save on distribution costs and potentially pay a higher tax burden as a result of budgeting in payment for the infrastructure. I see a lot of room for unintended consequences. I also see no reason there would be a positive change in reliability or response times without increasing the labor pool involved.