Maine could join up with Canada in an electric-power sharing arrangement or even create an independent in-state transmission company – options that at least give the state bargaining power as it tries to bring down the current costs of belonging to the New England Power Pool.

A report released last week by the Maine Public Utilities Commission found there is no legal problem with the state pulling out of its agreement with the rest of New England that has ratepayers here subsidizing Massachusetts and Connecticut, where demand is growing fastest.

That subsidy was initially estimated at $300 million for Maine ratepayers over four years to encourage new generators to come on line to serve southern New England. Now the Maine PUC is saying the state could be on the hook for more than $600 million for all the costs associated with belonging to the New England grid over the next five years.

“Those are basically subsidy costs that we don’t believe we should pay,” said Kurt Adams, chairman of Maine PUC.

Transmission projects, for example, are expected to cost $4.4 billion for the New England system over the next five years, and $2.5 billion of that will be spent in Connecticut.

“One state is going to get over half of the investment,” yet all states pay for it, he said.

Whether the state can make those costs go away under a different arrangement has yet to be proven, and there is at least six months more of study to determine what a new arrangement should look like.

“I don’t know what the most likely scenario is right now. Our job for the past six months was to figure out, ‘Do we have options?'” said Adams.

And the answer, he is happy to report, is “yes.”

Maine and its neighbors have long relied on each other to provide backup in times of power shortages, but that relationship changed after deregulation, when local power companies were forced out of the generation market.

An Independent System Operator (ISO) of New England was created to monitor supply and demand on the wholesale electricity market and make sure there was enough available for the whole region.

ISO New England has said Maine is getting a good deal because it shares its costs with five other states, but Maine is finding it is paying for additional capacity it doesn’t need.

Adams, who was in New Brunswick last week, believes Canada might be a better partner. One thing Adams likes about sharing a power grid with the Canadian Maritimes is they are close neighbors with similar projections for future needs. And, their seasonal energy needs are complementary – Maine’s peak in the summer when air conditioners are running and Canada’s peak in the winter with the cold.

Alternatively, there is not such a cozy relationship with the New England power grid.

“We are not in the middle of the bed. We’re hanging off the end. How much do we really get out of the pool versus how much does it cost us?” Adams asked.