The new chairman of the Maine Public Utilities Commission said regulators are as concerned as Central Maine Power Co. customers over the company’s billing practices.

“We share the concerns of customers who are dissatisfied with the response of CMP,” said Phil Bartlett, who was at the University of Southern Maine’s Hannaford Hall for a public hearing Tuesday evening.

In a brief press conference before the hearing, Bartlett said the PUC, which regulates Maine utilities, is reviewing complaints as it investigates CMP’s customer service and billing practices. Hundreds of customers have complained about high bills, particularly in the winter of 2017-18, after CMP launched a new billing system on Oct. 30, 2017.

Last month, a Portland Press Herald investigation found that CMP bungled the rollout of the new billing system, mismanaged customer response and misled the public about the scope of the problems. At one point, CMP had sent out more than 100,000 inaccurate bills. A few months after the new billing system was launched, 97,000 customers received bills that were 50 percent or higher than the same three-month period a year earlier.

The Press Herald reporting revealed that CMP and its parent company had taken shortcuts on testing and skirted industry best practices with the launch of its SmartCare billing system. The ensuing complaints prompted three separate investigations and a lawsuit.

The PUC public hearing will also focus on CMP’s request for a $46.5 million rate increase, a hike of about 10.65 percent. The PUC’s staff has recommended that the commission cut about $30 million from the requested increase, including a reduction of CMP’s annual earnings of about $4 million to $6 million to stay in place until the utility meets certain customer service standards.

The company is seeking a rate hike because of increasing operating costs and to improve the reliability of CMP’s distribution system.

Bartlett said Tuesday’s hearing is “critical” to gathering information on the investigation and the rate hike request. The PUC is expected to rule on the rate hike in October and finish its investigation of customer service and billing issues later this year.