Maine Public Utilities Commission - A State Government Leader in the Use of Technology

A Publication Featuring The Information Services Technology of Maine State Government

Significant changes in the way public utilities are regulated began in the 1990’s and continue today. As a result of this activity the Maine Public Utilities commissioners began a major push to make the Commission more open and accessible to the public. They fully recognized that successful implementation of the many structural changes that began taking place in the mid-1990’s to move the provision of utility services from a highly regulated approach to a more "free market" approach, required an informed and educated public. While we initiated an intensive public outreach and educational program, using our in-house "speaker’s bureau," we quickly recognized that this effort was not enough. The Commission’s vision – to make the Commission and its processes as open and accessible to citizens living in Presque Isle (or anywhere else) as it is to those who live in Augusta – would require a significant expansion of our use of technology.

On the Web: Throughout its history, the Commission has aggressively kept pace with many of the new technologies that entered the workplace to improve performance and productivity. In 1996, we began a relatively modest effort to provide basic information about the Commission, its staff, and processes and procedures on the Internet. With the development of a "www presence," our homepage was among the first such sites for state utility regulatory commissions and proved to be enormously successful. With each new upgrade, we received more positive feedback and requests to provide even more services "on-line." We quickly recognized that this was the means to achieving the Commission’s vision.

At the same time that we were developing our web presence, actions taken by the Commission established the "School and Library" program. This program makes the web accessible to anyone living in Maine, including those who do not have Internet access in their homes. Therefore, it is a key component to ensure citizen access to the Commission, its documents, and processes and procedures. According to a recent Department of Commerce report, over forty-two percent of Maine households have Internet access. However, all Mainers have access through all public libraries and K-12 public schools, using the now fully operational Maine School and Library Network.

Now the Commission’s website contains information on deliberative session agendas, current docketed or active cases, recent decisions and orders, news releases and other time-sensitive information. The site also contains lists of regulated utilities and their tariffs, staff contact information, Commission rules, state statutes, and live audio from the Commission’s deliberative sessions.

Live Audio on the Web: The live audio (using RealAudio™) feature is particularly useful for public access, and is very popular. Anyone with a computer and a modem is able to listen to Commission decisions being made. All of the Commission’s deliberative sessions, as well as most other hearings conducted in the PUC hearing room, are broadcast over the Internet and archived for access after the session is completed. A recent newspaper article reported that the Maine PUC has been on the Internet since 1997 with live and archived recordings of deliberative sessions and hearings – the first and only Maine state agency to do so.¹ While we have experienced problems with making this feature a stable part of the site, our work with the Bureau of Information Services (BIS) has resulted in marked improvement.

Electronic Documents via the Web: There continues to be significant interest in what Maine is doing regarding electric industry restructuring and we provide extensive information to accommodate this interest. The site features an electronic application for competitive energy providers, lists of those providers and links to their websites. Requests for bids for the electric "Standard Offer" provider are posted on the website. The complete packages for the most recent bids were available for each service territory at http://janus.state.me.us/mpuc/rfb2000.htm. The site provides access to the Commission’s restructuring consumer education program at http://www.pucfact.com/ and includes individual sections for different facets of the Commission’s activities. The Consumer Assistance Division section contains consumer bulletins, consumer tips, contact information and a "fill-in-the-blanks" electronic utility complaint form. There are separate pages for telecommunications, energy, natural gas, water utilities, electric industry restructuring, and legislative issues. All Commission Orders back to 1993 are accessible and beginning in 1997 orders have been converted to Adobe™ "PDF" format for ease of use.

Two recent additions to the website have increased public accessibility to the Commission. The first is our "Virtual Case File" (http://mpuc.informe.org/). All documents for all currently active and recently closed cases are available. Documents are either provided electronically or are scanned in PDF format. Before the virtual case file, only final orders were available on the website, now any document in the case file including hand-written ones or those with signatures are available. As a result, anyone – anywhere in Maine – can follow any case by accessing this feature.

Electronic Filing Pilot: The Commission has also initiated a pilot program for secure electronic filing of complete utility cases, including pre-filed testimony, appendices and exhibits. Participating companies file rate cases, tariff change requests or official documents on a secure FTP site that is password-protected. Our Case Management Unit receives automatic electronic notice of new filings, recording the electronic date stamp as the official filing time. These electronic documents are then put directly in the "virtual case file" without the need for scanning or conversion to PDF format. Commission staff members are able to access relevant parts of any case and print only necessary sections on new high-speed printers. Prior to this capability, utilities had to file multiple paper copies of cases and all staff members assigned to a case received all of the paper documents filed in a case, whether or not it was necessary for an individual’s piece of the case analysis. We plan to implement this capability fully within the next several months.

More recently, the Commission began providing all orders or case decisions back to 1980, where electronic versions exist, on a compact disc. The orders are in the format as originally created, which means, for the earlier orders, older versions of WordPerfect and Lotus WordPro. Orders from the last few years were created in MS Word. A CD of Adobe Acrobat version of orders is also available beginning with 1997 orders. This is useful for those who need to have many of these documents available quickly without waiting to access each of the documents via the Internet. It provides them with a mini-database of this information that is available "off-line".

A report by the U.S. Department of Commerce observes that the Internet is becoming an increasingly vital tool in our information society.² We believe that the Commission’s website is one of those important tools. Our web presence allows the public, utility companies, interveners, researchers, and other interested persons worldwide to have access to the Commission. In this period of increasingly competitive utility services, public information and education is crucial for the successful operation of emerging markets. A competitive market cannot exist without an informed consumer. The Commission’s website has been the primary instrument in providing activities, thus helping us achieve the Commission’s vision.

Savings and Telecommuting: While not a primary goal, other benefits to our aggressive use of this new technology are the real savings that we have generated in terms of both time and money, travel costs, reduced pollution related to travel to the Commission’s offices, and the reams of paper saved, not only for our agency, but for all of those who interact with the Commission on a regular basis.

Even further savings accrue from our implementation of a limited telecommuting program. Commission staff (with approval of their supervisors) can telecommute for up to two days per week. This program provides significant and measurable benefits for staff, the Commission, and society as a whole. For example, participating staff have reduced automotive emissions resulting from travel to work by over seven tons and have conserved nearly 3200 gallons of gasoline since the implementation of the program. The program also has helped to reduce lost time due to closure of state offices for weather or more recently, as a result of the September 11 terrorist attack. Furthermore, it provides a valuable alternative for staff that otherwise might have to come to the office on weekends in order to meet already tight schedules to complete their work on time to allow for the Commission to make timely decisions.

While we have focused on the use of the Internet in this article, you should be aware of how we are using other technical capabilities, widely available but little used throughout state government. One of the biggest time savers for our staff is our requirement that all staff keep their MS Outlook calendars up-to-date and available for access by others throughout the Commission and state government. This requirement and our arrangement to have calendars established for all of our conference rooms, allows us to schedule meetings quickly without going from office to office, or calling all potential participants to see if they are available for the meeting. This simple requirement makes meeting scheduling "virtually" effortless.

We have also purchased a utility loaded on all computers, that provides an electronic "in/out" board accessible by all employees. When an individual starts his/her computer up or shuts it down, the utility immediately identifies that person as being in or out of the office. Furthermore, all Commission staff are required to post a note on this utility specifying when they will return to the office if they are out of the building. This simple and inexpensive bit of technology saves immeasurable amounts of time for anyone who is trying to determine the availability of fellow coworkers and is extremely helpful to our receptionist.

We also have developed a daily "PowerPoint" presentation used in our lobby to provide information to the public on the daily events at the Commission, as well as information on issues of interest to utility customers. This saves time for our customers and reduces the number of questions that our receptionist has to respond to, freeing her up to work on other issues.

We have found that these simple and largely inexpensive efforts to use technology to meet our internal as well as external needs, have improved our customer satisfaction with the services we provide, and measurable savings for the Commission as well at the public we serve.

Ann Solmitz has worked for the Commission for almost 12 years. She began as a secretary for the Administrative Director. In 1994 she move to the Information Systems Unit due to her strong interest and aptitude for computers. In 2001 she became the Commission's Agency Technology Officer, responsible for the planning and implementation of all information technology issues. Ann can be reached at 287-8519 or mail to: ann.solmitz@state.me.us.

Phil Lindley started at the PUC in 1993 as an analyst in the Finance Division, working primarily on telecommunications issues. He came from the Washington State Utilities Commission. In 1996 Phil assumed the additional duties of the Commission's Public Information Coordinator and fledgling Webmaster. The PUC website began in the fall of 1996 as a tool to make the PUC more accessible to the public. He continues to assist with the management of the PUC website, but encourages all PUC staff to provide suggestions or take "ownership" of particular sections. Phil can be reached at 287-1598 or email to: phil.lindley@state.me.us.

1. Mainers Lack Online Access to Government, Bangor Daily News, by Mal Leary, September 20, 2001.

2. Falling Through the Net: Toward Digital Inclusion, October, 2000, U.S. Dept. of Commerce.

Volume IV, Issue 12	December 2001