Versant Power customers experience most reliable service in more than 15 years

Bangor and Presque Isle, ME - During 2025, customers across Versant Power’s service territory saw improved reliability in their electric service thanks to Versant’s continued work on system maintenance, strategic investments, and weather factors such as a reduced number of storms. Weather, specifically falling trees and limbs during bad weather, is the No. 1 cause of power outages.

Versant’s system reliability performance metrics reached levels not seen in more than 15 years. The cumulative year-to-date performance for SAIFI, which represents the number of outages per customer, was 1.91 with a benchmark of 2.54.

SAIDI refers to the number of hours a customer was without power. For this metric, the cumulative year-to-date performance was 3.72, well below the 6.28 benchmark.

Reliability projects that took place this year include:

Versant Power replaced more than 20 miles of bare wire with covered conductor in 2025 as part of its commitment to deliver safe and reliable power to customers in eastern and northern Maine. Some of the communities that directly benefit from these upgrades are Blue Hill, Brooklin, Trenton, Hancock, Millinocket, Brownville, Cedar Lake TWP, and Deer Isle. Covered conductor is a type of wire wrapped in a material that makes it more resistant when trees and branches touch the line, helping to prevent faults and outages.

Tunk Lake STATCOM site, photo courtesy GE Vernova

In the summer, Versant Power crews began the second phase of a multi-year project to replace more than 40 miles of poles and structures in St. John Valley. Six miles of weakened equipment that was over 60 years old were removed and replaced from Hamlin to Van Buren. The work follows the first phase of the rebuild, six miles of line completed in 2024. During this stage, crews installed about 120 poles and then transferred the upgraded wire to the new structures. About 10,000 customers near the Crown of Maine benefited from these upgrades. 

Crews also installed a synchronous condenser, the first of its kind on Versant’s transmission system, at the Boggy Brook substation in Ellsworth. This project began in 2022 and was energized in July. This piece of equipment regulates varying electrical voltage and provides inertia to allow the system to ride through disturbances, offering much needed system stability as more wind and solar generation is brought online in Versant’s service territory. 

In September, Versant Power crews replaced aging equipment with new smart devices called Compact Modular Reclosers (CMRs) along Route 193 in the Deblois and Beddington area. This area was selected and reviewed by Versant Power engineers because of frequent outages in recent years.

    

 

Riley McKay, Supervisor, Power Systems Technical, stands in front of Versant Power's new mobile substation in Hermon.

In the fall, Versant Power unveiled a new mobile substation that was custom-designed for Versant’s system in a way that it can be used in almost all of its distribution substation applications. This new mobile substation gives Versant Power added reliability by carrying customer load when substations are out of service for maintenance or equipment failures. Having a mobile substation can reduce restoration times by 75 percent for substation-related issues.

This year, Versant Power also completed the installation of a new Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM) at the Tunk Lake substation in Sullivan to support power coming in from a nearby coastal wind farm. This project represents cutting-edge engineering and is also a story about teamwork, community, and Maine-grown innovation.

Together, these investments are delivering stronger, more reliable electric service for customers today while positioning Versant Power’s grid to support tomorrow’s expanding renewable energy resources. They reflect not only continued innovation across the company, but also the dedication of the employees and partners who make this work possible, and Versant Power’s commitment to working closely with the communities it serves across eastern and northern Maine.

Versant Power is committed to delivering safe, reliable electric service. As the state's second-largest electric utility, the company delivers electricity to more than 165,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers across 10,400 square miles in northern and eastern Maine.