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When we became a public company in 1947, we did so with the belief
that this would provide a significant impetus for the growth of our
business, while providing value for our shareholders. Our mission was to
become a profitable, socially, and fiscally responsible company. Our
dedication to this mission is unwavering.
The last few years have seen increasingly positive valuation being
placed on utility companies, as a direct result of improving industry
fundamentals. Industry-wide prices for generation services have
demonstrated resilience in the face of increasing gas prices, an
indication that utility fundamentals such as capacity, ancillary
service, and load shaping are driving demand.
We are excited by new opportunities for transmission within and
outside the service territory, and for renewable generation sources
within the service territory. Our geographic location provides access to
the rapidly expanding Canadian and New England markets, as we are
uniquely positioned by being a United States utility that is connected
to Canada. On March 1, 2007, the Company entered into a memorandum of
understanding with Central Maine Power Company, a subsidiary of Energy
East, to pursue the development of a large-scale transmission project
that has the potential to produce additional returns and connect MPS to
the New England gird.
Plans to construct a 345 kV power line from central Maine to northern
Aroostook County were announced on July 1, 2008, when a petition for a
certificate of public convenience and necessity was filed with the Maine
Public Utilities Commission. The joint project, named the Maine
Power Connection (MPC), will connect northern Maine to the CMP and New
England electrical grids to provide MPS customers with access to
competitive power markets and support development of 1,250 MW of
proposed wind generation in Aroostook County. Presently, MPS does
not have a connection to the New England electrical grid or adequate
capacity to handle burgeoning requests for transmission connections from
wind developers. The Maine Power Connection transmission line
project will create access to renewable resources and provide tremendous
economic and environmental benefits to northern Maine.
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