With approval from the Maine Public Utilities Commission in hand, Central Maine Power hopes to soon begin reinforcing and improving the region’s power grid.

The project approved by the PUC emerged from closed-door meetings involving the major parties contesting the case. Compromises and deals were clearly needed to get this essential project underway, but the bottom line ”“ $1.4 billion ”“ was quite close to CMP’s original proposal.

Although the project is in the region’s best interest, it’s  disappointing that a staff report seeking savings had little effect on the projected bottom line. The PUC’s examiners had urged cutting CMP’s $1.5 billion proposal to $1 billion, arguing for a project narrowly focused on strengthening the “backbone” of  CMP’s grid.

Most of the costs of the Maine Power Reliability Project will be shared throughout New England. It’s an approach that limits the incentive to push hard for savings, and tends to drive transmission costs up.

Despite the price tag, the upgrade is an investment worth making. More capacity is needed to accommodate growth and economic development in Maine, and CMP argued strongly that components of the  aging system are increasingly vulnerable to a region-wide breakdown. Although the goal of abundant wind generation in western and northern Maine is not assured, the project also includes the lines needed to bring this anticipated power to U.S. markets.

The utility plans to begin work in June on the project, which will establish new substations and involve the  construction or reconstruction of 115- and 345-kilovolt transmission lines. The 350-mile project will transit York County west of the Maine Turnpike, through Saco, Biddeford, Arundel, Kennebunk, Wells, North Berwick, South Berwick and  Eliot.

The agreement includes an ombudsman and a dispute resolution process to address siting concerns raised by landowners. CMP will fund energy efficiency efforts and energy planning studies. It will collaborate with its former opponent, GridSolar, on two pilot projects to generate and distribute power locally.

Although GridSolar’s claims were disputed by CMP and not embraced by the PUC staff, the Portland-based company emerges from the process with a long-term contract for establishing smart grid pilot projects. Besides GridSolar, parties to the settlement included the Office of the Public Advocate, Bangor Hydro-Electric, Industrial Energy Consumers Group, and Conservation Law Foundation, and CMP.

The efforts of these organizations resulted in a plan the PUC could endorse. Skepticism may be inevitable in such an imperfect process, but the plan offers the prospect of upgrading Maine’s grid while also exploring alternatives to the traditional transmission system.