LEWISTON — Power companies like Central Maine Power want the very best transmission lines available —  no matter the cost to customers.

“They want the gold standard, and that’s understandable,” said Maine Public Advocate Richard Davies. “But what we’re looking at now, is can they get by with a silver standard, maybe a copper standard?”

That’s the question CMP must answer as it seeks to get Maine Public Utilities Commission approval for its massive power-line replacement program, Davies told a room full of concerned Lewiston residents and landowners Thursday night at the Lewiston Multi-Purpose Center.

Davies brought residents and city officials up to date on the utility’s Maine Power Reliability Program. It calls for upgrading a nearly 40-year-old swath of power lines through the state, beginning in Eliot in southern Maine and passing through Litchfield, Monmouth, Leeds, Greene, Lewiston and a corner of Auburn at the Durham line. They stop in Orrington, where they connect to lines from Canada.

“It’s the first major upgrade of the power transmission system through Maine since the ’60s or ’70s,” Davies said. “So it makes sense that some upgrade is probably necessary. The question that CMP needs to answer is: What is the appropriate level of upgrade?”

The project would affect about 4,000 property abutters statewide. If approved, it could take three to five years to complete. 

CMP representatives will be back at the Multi-Purpose
Center at  6 p.m. Monday for a Planning Board workshop on the power-line
upgrade and plans for a new substation off Larabee Road.

The proposal is in the middle of hearings with the PUC, whose commissioners are scheduled Feb. 2 through 12 to hear expert
testimony on the plan. 

Work is following two parallel tracks, Davies said. While CMP, experts and
neighbors plead their cases before the PUC, the
company is negotiating settlements with Davies’ office, some
neighbors and other environmental and advocacy groups.

Davies said those negotiations could solve some of the issues
— such as possible health effects from high-power transmission lines near homes and the effect on the landscape — that concern Lewiston residents. He said details
of those negotiations are privileged and couldn’t yet be discussed in public.

“There is a concern, in an adversarial process like the PUC review,
you might not win,” Davies said. “If you negotiate a settlement, you
might not get everything you want, but you might get more if it gets
decided by someone else.”

Davies expects the PUC to rule on the final plan this summer, he said. The proposal also must be approved by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. That process would begin once the PUC makes its ruling.

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