MPUC Proposes Significant Changes to Utility Service Area and Infrastructure Map Requirements

The Maine Public Utilities Commission has issued a Notice of Rulemaking to amend its rule relating to utility service areas and infrastructure maps, Chapter 140.  Chapter 140 requires utilities to maintain and file with the Commission electronic maps showing the utility’s service area and depicting the utility’s infrastructure.  The proposed amendments are intended to reflect technological advances as well as the MPUC’s experience working with Chapter 120 and the associated data since the rule was first adopted ten years ago.  Among the proposed amendments is a new requirement that utilities segregate public infrastructure information from confidential infrastructure information (the applicable standard for confidentiality is set forth in 35-A M.R.S.A. § 1311-B), and for utilities to file each set of information separately.  Also, the proposed amendments would eliminate the $500,000 project cost threshold for reporting changes to utility infrastructure on infrastructure maps.  If that amendment is adopted, all changes in utility infrastructure, regardless of the size of the project, will need to be reflected on amended maps.