By Erin Ailworth | Boston Globe
Federal regulators are suing a Maine consultancy that does business in Massachusetts, alleging that the firm helped a client steal millions of dollars from New England electricity customers by gaming an energy conservation program.
The suit, against Competitive Energy Services LLC, of Portland, is one of two similar cases the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission filed in US District Court in Boston this month. The agency contends that Competitive Energy and its chief executive, Richard Silkman, helped manipulate energy data to allow one of the firm’s customers, Rumford Paper Co., to get paid for cutting power consumption during times of peak demand when it wasn’t really conserving.
The second case accuses another Maine company, Lincoln Paper and Tissue LLC, of being part of the same type of scheme.
