CMP Announces ‘Investing in Maine’s Future’ Plan

 

CMP’s proposed investment plan hires 200 new lineworkers and strengthens Maine’s grid for extreme storms by bringing successful strategies to more communities

Augusta, ME — July 17, 2025 — Central Maine Power (CMP), a subsidiary of Avangrid Inc., has announced its plan to invest in major workforce initiatives and significant grid strengthening programs over the next five years. In a notice to the Maine Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) filed on July 17, 2025, CMP said it would seek approval to hire approximately 400 new full-time, Maine-based employees, including 200 new lineworkers. Other hires would include customer service staff, engineers, project planners and digital services employees.

CMP intends to pair this major workforce initiative with a five-year grid strengthening and enhanced vegetation management plan across its service area. These kinds of investments will include stronger poles, expansion of CMP’s danger tree program, upgraded substations, covered wire to protect power lines from tree damage, and new technologies that will reduce the number of customers impacted during an outage and lower the cost of power restoration.

In recent years, our state has been challenged by extreme weather in ways unseen before. Between 2022 and 2024, four storms rivaled that of the 1998 Ice Storm, and last month, Mainers set a new record for the amount of energy used in a single day due to extreme heat.

CMP’s proposal of hiring more lineworkers, investing in infrastructure, and expanding vegetation management programs reflects the company’s response to the new reality of extreme weather. It is meant to allow CMP to rely on fewer expensive external contractors during extreme storms, lessen the damage to the grid during destructive weather events, and lower overall cost of storm restoration in the future.

“If we make smart investments now, we can lower what our customers will pay in the future, especially during extreme weather events,” said Joe Purington, President and CEO of Central Maine Power. “In addition to more reliable power, it is clear that our customers want more financial certainty at a time when costs are rising. By proposing this five-year plan, we will put CMP on a structured path that will provide more cost stability on the part of your bill we control. It will also allow our team to make the types of workforce and infrastructure investments needed to improve reliability and reduce the impact of extreme weather.”

Storm Preparation and Reliability at Heart of CMP’s Plan

 

• Preparing for extreme weather and extreme storms. CMP has made a lot of progress replacing decades-old infrastructure. However, work remains to be done to prepare communities for future extreme storms. For example, of CMP’s 665,000 poles, roughly 145,000 are nearing the end of their operational lifespan. To strengthen a grid the size of CMP’s, a robust field workforce is required.
• Maine’s population growth and new grid uses. Maine’s population has increased to 1.4 million people and the state’s demand for electricity is growing. Additional crews will help accommodate the growing communities and businesses that rely on CMP’s grid for power.
• Improving reliability. Stringing hundreds of miles of protected tree wire and installing scores of stronger utility poles will require skilled workers. Combining grid upgrades with enhanced tree care programs will have measurable reliability benefits for customers.
• Future planning. A five-year investment plan helps avoid supply chain disruptions and equipment shortages, especially for long-lead time items like transformers, by allowing for early procurement, better forecasting, and stronger supplier partnerships.

“This is more than a well-thought-out vision for a better energy future for Maine. Under this plan, we will be recruiting experienced crafts people and training a new generation of Maine-based union workers who will live and work right here in our communities and earn competitive wages,” said Tony Sapienza, IBEW 1837 business manager. “We strongly support CMP’s investment plan.”

CMP’s Goal to Create Price Stability for Customers

CMP is proposing a structured, five-year investment plan. The goal of this plan is to create price stability for customers while allowing the company to make critical grid investments in order to lower what customers pay during extreme weather events in the future.

The company’s proposal would require an increase in annual revenue ranging between $400-450 million by the end of the five-year rate plan. By implementing a multi-year plan, the company seeks to minimize the financial net impact to our customers as hundreds of millions of dollars in one-time storm costs are cycled off customer bills.

As is typical, the MPUC and the Office of the Public Advocate will carefully review and scrutinize CMP’s proposal during a public and transparent process. These estimates do not account for potential changes in the non-CMP portion of a customer’s electric bill, including electric supply and other charges. If approved, the earliest this plan would be implemented is mid-2026.

CMP’s Plan to Measurably Improve Service Across Regions

 

CMP’s investment plan will include a variety of grid resiliency, modernization, and hardening initiatives, including the following:

• Running hundreds of miles of covered tree wire in rural Maine. Maine is the most forested state in the nation and tree damage remains the leading cause of outages at CMP. Threats to rural communities from tree damage, which is being made worse by extreme weather and pests, can be proactively addressed by replacing unprotected wire in more areas of Maine.
• Replacing decades-old utility poles with the modern standard. In 2024, CMP replaced more than 5,700 wooden utility poles with new ones that are thicker and stronger. Continuing this work will phase out outdated types of wooden poles. CMP is also focused on identifying areas where stronger steel poles could be installed to protect the grid from extreme weather and coastal flooding.
• Grid expansion for the growing Southern Maine region. CMP is proposing a multi-phase plan to address reliability needs for more than 200,000 customers in Southern Maine. This expansion would include installing stronger, modern transmission lines, and a series of substation improvement and construction projects. It will also help facilitate new shore power connections along Portland’s waterfront. This will allow more energy to flow throughout the region and support new customer uses from housing to transportation.
• Installing additional smart technology. CMP has installed more than 200 automated smart technology devices onto Maine’s grid this year. During outage situations, automated smart devices give CMP’s technicians the ability to remotely direct power around damaged sections of line, restoring power to customers within minutes. Adding 2,500 of these devices over the next five years will deliver the power of smart technology to more than 400,000 customers.
• Significant upgrades to substations from York to Penobscot County. Investments at specific substation sites will provide 21st century reliability benefits to thousands more customers. These upgrades include comprehensive plans for backup power pathways, new steel substation structures, new automated technology and higher capacity transformers. Lead times for critical equipment replacements now extend up to two years, which is one reason why CMP is proposing this long-term plan.