MPUC Standard Offer RFPs run as three utility-district procurements
Maine’s electric restructuring statute lets every retail customer purchase generation from a licensed Competitive Electricity Provider. If you never designate a CEP, the Maine Public Utilities Commission arranges Standard Offer supply through a competitive request-for-proposals process. That procurement is not a single statewide auction that every laundromat can read the same way. The Commission posts Standard Offer materials by utility district: Central Maine Power, Versant Power’s Bangor Hydro District, and Versant Power’s Maine Public District.
Each district file further splits residential and small non-residential load from medium and large commercial and industrial load. A Portland CMP storefront and a Bangor Versant storefront therefore sit in different procurement worlds even though both are Maine addresses on the ISO New England grid. Treating a CMP Standard Offer disclosure as if it applied to a Versant Bangor Hydro District meter is the most common statewide mistake multi-store operators make when they expand from southern Maine into Penobscot County.
Standard Offer is requirements service for customers who have not chosen a CEP. It is a default generation product, not a delivery tariff. CMP and Versant continue to own poles, wires, transformers, and meters whether you stay on Standard Offer or enroll with a licensed CEP. The RFP selects who bills the generation line for non-shoppers; it does not deputize a supplier to restore a feeder after an ice storm.
Commission pages also list licensed retail electricity suppliers, brokers, and aggregators. Licensing means the company may offer generation in Maine. It does not mean every licensed name is actively quoting your commercial class this month, and it does not convert Standard Offer into a negotiated contract. Before you treat a cold-call price as a replacement for Standard Offer, confirm the company appears on the Commission’s retail supplier materials and that the product is written for the class on your bill.
When you archive procurement notes, keep the utility-district name next to the Standard Offer class. A binder labeled only “Maine Standard Offer” will mix CMP medium-class RFP language with Versant Maine Public District postings and produce a benchmark that matches neither meter. Laundromat owners who operate both a Portland CMP site and a northern Maine Versant site need two Standard Offer files, two CEP conversations, and two renewal calendars.
The CMP medium-class 20–400 kW band is RFP language, not a Versant shortcut
Central Maine Power Standard Offer RFPs describe the medium class as general-service customers with peak demands generally between 20 kW and 400 kW. That sentence is useful because it tells a multi-machine laundry how the Commission is grouping default-supply load for CMP. It is not a permission slip to invent a cents-per-kilowatt-hour number, and it is not the definition Versant uses in every district. Versant Maine Public District Standard Offer RFPs have described a different medium band. Read the RFP or class label that matches the utility name on page one of your bill.
A store that recently added extractors, electric dryers, or rooftop cooling can cross a demand threshold even if the street address never changed. The class printed on the CMP bill—not the number of washers you remember installing—governs which Standard Offer file and which CEP list you should open. If peak demand sits near the bottom of the medium band, confirm whether you are still billed as small general service before you shop a medium-class product.
Medium and large CMP Standard Offer customers can see demand-related billing units on the delivery side of the invoice even while generation is a separate line. Switching to a CEP changes who supplies energy. It does not erase CMP demand determinants, public-policy charges, or other regulated T&D elements. Model those delivery units from your own interval or demand history. Do not import a demand figure from another store or from a residential Standard Offer disclosure.
Large-class RFPs have at times allowed indexed structures that medium-class bids did not. That distinction matters if a salesperson quotes an indexed “commercial” product without reading your class. Ask whether the offer is written for the CMP medium band described in the Commission RFP or for a different class. If your billed peak is above the medium band, you are not shopping the same default-supply file as a 25 kW neighborhood laundry.
Keep a one-page class worksheet: utility district, printed rate code, highest billed demand in the last twelve months, and whether Standard Offer or a named CEP currently sits on the generation line. Update the worksheet after equipment changes. The 20–400 kW CMP medium description is a procurement grouping, not a promise that every laundry in Cumberland County shares one supplier market.
Portland CMP meters and Bangor Versant meters do not share a Standard Offer file
Portland and much of southern and western Maine take delivery from Central Maine Power. Bangor and surrounding communities take delivery from Versant Power’s Bangor Hydro District, the successor to the old Bangor Hydro Electric footprint. Farther north, Versant’s Maine Public District covers the former Maine Public Service territory. Those three names are not marketing aliases for one wires company. They are the keys to the correct Standard Offer RFP and the correct CEP conversation.
A multi-store operator who prices a Bangor laundry off a Portland CMP Standard Offer posting will misstate the default generation benchmark even if both stores run similar washer counts. Versant Bangor Hydro District and Versant Maine Public District also differ from each other. If your second store is in Aroostook County rather than the Bangor metro, you are not automatically on the Bangor Hydro District file. Read the Versant district name on the bill before you forward usage to a supplier.
Small municipal electric systems sit outside this investor-owned shopping pattern. If a lease lists a town utility rather than CMP or Versant, do not assume Commission CEP enrollment is available. Confirm the delivery company at the street address, not from a regional nickname on a broker flyer. The mailing city “Bangor” or “Portland” is a clue, not a substitute for the utility legal name.
Gas geography does not follow the electric map. Greater Bangor gas is typically Bangor Gas, while greater Portland often sits on Northern Utilities doing business as Unitil or on other LDCs depending on the street. A dual-fuel laundry in Bangor may shop electric CEPs against Versant Standard Offer while separately reviewing commercial gas transportation on Bangor Gas. Those are two regulators-and-tariff problems, not one “Maine energy” quote.
When you brief a lender or a buyer on a Maine laundry portfolio, attach the T&D name and Standard Offer district to each store. A CIM that says “deregulated Maine electric” without naming CMP versus Versant Bangor Hydro District versus Maine Public District is incomplete. The Commission’s supplier lists and Standard Offer pages are organized on that split for a reason.
A licensed CEP replaces Standard Offer generation—not CMP or Versant delivery
A Competitive Electricity Provider sells the energy commodity. CMP or Versant still delivers that energy over regulated transmission and distribution facilities. Maine law that opened retail competition left delivery as a monopoly service. You cannot shop away the wires company by signing a CEP contract, and you cannot ask the CEP to dispatch line crews when a tree takes down a feeder.
On a consolidated bill, supply and delivery often appear as separate groups of line items under one CMP or Versant logo. That layout fools new owners into thinking the utility sold them a bundled product. Isolate the Standard Offer or CEP generation charges from distribution, transmission, and other T&D riders before you decide whether a CEP offer is even relevant. A lower generation quote that ignores rising delivery riders can still produce a higher total invoice.
CEP energy prices are competitive offers. They are not Commission-set Standard Offer prices. Standard Offer is the RFP outcome for non-shoppers. Compare a CEP product to the Standard Offer posting for your utility district and class, using the effective dates on the Commission materials you actually opened—not a screenshot from another year or another district. Do not treat a CEP teaser as a regulated tariff.
Brokers and aggregators must also respect Commission licensing rules. A salesperson who cannot show a Maine license, or who wants to enroll you on a residential product, is not a substitute for the retail supplier list. Medium commercial CMP accounts in particular should confirm the CEP is offering a product that matches the 20–400 kW RFP class rather than a household plan with a commercial logo pasted on the email.
After enrollment, the first two bills are a reconciliation exercise. Confirm the CEP name on the generation line, confirm CMP or Versant still owns every delivery line, and confirm no one rolled T&D riders into a single “energy” number that you can no longer audit. Keep the Commission supplier page printout in the same folder as the contract so staff can see that licensing and billing are different questions.
Commercial gas transportation is a limited LDC option, not a household shopping portal
Maine does not run a residential gas-marketer shopping site comparable to its electric CEP lists. Commission materials on commercial and industrial gas choice explain that most C&I customers may take bundled delivery-plus-commodity service or unbundled transportation-only service under each gas utility’s terms and conditions. The listed distributors are Bangor Gas Company, Maine Natural Gas Corporation, Northern Utilities doing business as Unitil, and Summit Natural Gas of Maine.
A laundry with gas dryers must first identify which LDC owns the service drop. Greater Portland and other southern load often sits on Northern/Unitil. Greater Bangor gas is Bangor Gas. Kennebec Valley and other Summit towns are a third map. Maine Natural Gas covers still other municipalities. Electric CEP shopping on CMP or Versant does not move your gas meter onto a marketer, and a gas transportation election does not change who restores electric outages.
Registration of a gas supplier with the Commission is not a guarantee that the company will quote your laundry this month. Commission text itself warns that a listed name may be unwilling or unable to serve when asked. Treat the registered-supplier list as a starting directory, then read the LDC’s transportation tariff for eligibility, imbalance, and billing mechanics. Do not import a Pennsylvania-style dual-fuel RFP assumption into a Maine small-commercial dryer bank.
Many Maine laundries still buy bundled gas commodity from the LDC because transportation programs are built for customers who can manage nomination and imbalance risk. If your therm volume is modest, ask the LDC whether transportation-only service is even a practical class for your meter before you sign a marketer confirmation. Electric Standard Offer comparisons and gas transportation decisions can—and often should—sit on different calendars.
Dual-fuel owners should keep two folders: CMP or Versant electric (Standard Offer versus CEP) and the named gas LDC (bundled commodity versus transportation). Winter ISO-NE electric exposure and winter gas commodity are related only in that both rise when the store is busy. They are not a single “energy rate” you can shop on one website.
ISO New England settlement does not merge CMP and Versant laundry files
CMP and Versant load settles in ISO New England. That regional wholesale market is why winter weather, fuel constraints, and capacity constructs can move the cost of serving Maine retail load. It is not a reason to paste a Massachusetts Basic Service screenshot or a New Hampshire Energy Service row onto a Maine Standard Offer worksheet. The Commission’s RFP is the Maine default-supply mechanism; ISO-NE is the regional grid behind it.
Variable or indexed CEP products can pass through wholesale movements more quickly than a fixed Standard Offer month. That is a contract-structure issue, not a promise of winter savings. This guide does not publish cents-per-kilowatt-hour figures. Pull the current Standard Offer posting for your district and class from Commission materials, then read whether a CEP offer is fixed, monthly, or indexed before you compare anything.
Laundry load in January is not laundry load in July. Extract, makeup air, space heat, and longer dryer cycles in damp cold weather change the shape of the hourly profile that a supplier must serve. A CEP quote modeled on a shoulder-season month can look tidy and still misfit a February Saturday. Use your own interval or monthly history. Do not invent a statewide kWh-per-store average.
ISO-NE membership also does not standardize delivery tariffs. CMP riders and Versant riders remain utility-specific. A CEP can replace Standard Offer generation and still leave you paying the T&D company that actually built the line to your strip center. When a vendor says “New England pricing,” ask which utility district, which Standard Offer class, and which ISO-NE product they modeled.
If you operate stores in Maine and another ISO-NE state, keep separate procurement files. A New Hampshire Energy Service reset and a Maine Standard Offer RFP year are different regulatory calendars. Crossing those calendars is how owners accidentally auto-renew a CEP in one state while they are busy reading the other state’s default-supply notice.
CMP or Versant still owns the outage ticket after any CEP enrollment
When the store goes dark, staff should call the delivery utility printed on the bill—Central Maine Power or Versant Power—not the Competitive Electricity Provider. Commission and utility materials are consistent on this split: CEPs supply energy; T&D companies deliver it and restore service. A CEP logo at the top of a consolidated invoice does not move storm restoration to a call center in another state.
Post the T&D outage number at the change machine and in the night binder. Overnight attendants often call whichever number is on the last marketing flyer. That delay does not restore a feeder. Keep the CEP number for billing and contract questions only. If a customer asks why the lights are out, the accurate answer is that the wires company is working the outage, regardless of who sells generation.
Ice, wind, and tree contacts are routine Maine delivery events. Switching CEPs will not bury a line, add a recloser, or change how quickly CMP or Versant can reach your industrial park. Evaluate reliability as a T&D and site-selection issue. Evaluate generation as a Standard Offer versus CEP contract issue. Mixing those conversations produces false promises about “supplier reliability.”
After restoration, check the next bill for estimated versus actual reads and for any CEP charges that look like they absorbed a delivery rider. Outage periods sometimes produce estimated usage that a supplier later true-up. That true-up is still a supply-versus-delivery audit, not a reason to call the CEP to “fix the wires.”
Train managers with a two-column card: left column CMP or Versant (outage, meter, new service, delivery disputes); right column CEP or Standard Offer (generation price, contract end date, enrollment). Review the card when you change suppliers. The wires relationship does not change on the enrollment date, and it does not change because ISO-NE had an expensive hour.
