Resources for Maine Residents with CMP
You can choose between the following monthly community solar bill options:
Note: You can request to switch your bill option later by contacting our customer care team. There is no fee to switch your bill option and no impact on your monthly savings by choosing one bill option over the other.
One-Bill Option
With the one-bill option, you’ll receive one monthly statement from Nautilus Solar that includes:
- Your share of solar energy at a 15% discount compared to CMP’s standard rates.
- CMP’s supply and delivery charges for any additional energy usage beyond your solar generation.
With this option, you do not directly pay your CMP bill because their charges are included on your Nautilus statement. We pay your CMP bill on your behalf.
Why does CMP still send you a bill?
Each month, CMP will still provide you with an electronic copy of your utility bill, but you do not pay this bill directly.
Your CMP bill includes a detailed breakdown of your monthly energy usage and charges.
Will CMP still get paid on time?
Yes. You should receive your Nautilus bill just a few days after your monthly CMP bill.
Your Nautilus autopayment due date is scheduled with plenty of time for us to ensure CMp is paid on time.
How do you enable the one-bill option?
To ensure you are on the one-bill option:
- Go to your Nautilus Solar customer account and update your CMP login credentials. You can do this in the "Update Utility Login" tab.
- In your CMP account. turn e-bill ON and autopay OFF
Why do you need to complete these steps?
- By confirming your account credentials, we can successfully pay CMP on your behalf.
- Turning e-bill on with CMP ensures you still get your statements in a timely manner.
- Turning autopay off ensures you don't double pay your utility charges since we include them on your Nautilus statement.
How to understand your Nautilus Solar bill
To best understand your community solar savings, let’s look at an example.
Every month, we’ll send your Nautilus Solar statement to the email address on your account.
Your billing history is also available on your customer account at https://nautilussolar.com/account.
In the example below, 402 kWhs of energy were generated for this customer by one of our solar farms. With Nautilus Solar, you save 15% on this energy compared to what CMP would charge you.
How does this work with your CMP bill?
Your CMP bills are your monthly total energy usage, your utility rates, and the breakdown of your energy charges for the energy beyond what your Nautilus Solar subscription generated.
For the monthly energy usage remaining after the deduction of the 402 kWh of solar energy, CMP calculates the supply and delivery charges on the CMP bill.
Below is the calculation of 620 kWh at CMP’s standard rates to calculate the charges for the energy.
Supply Charges represent the cost of generating energy for your home or business.
Delivery charges are also calculated. With CMP, the charge a flat rate for the first 50 kWH of energy and the rest at a variable rate as seen below.
Delivery charges represent the cost to move electricity through the grid to your home or business.
When will I receive my Nautilus statements?
If you choose the one-bill option, your Nautilus bill will be emailed to you a few days after your CMP bill and will include your CMP charges.
When will I receive my first bill from Nautilus?
Once we place you on an active solar farm, you can expect your first invoice within 1-3 billing cycles. You will need to keep paying CMP directly until you receive a Nautilus statement with "Utility Total Charges" included.
Make sure you turn autopay off with CMP, so you don’t accidentally double pay your utility charges. If you accidentally pay CMP directly, they will add this as a credit to your account since our bill also includes their charges.
Dual Bill Option
Prefer to keep things separate? With dual billing, you’ll receive a statement from CMP and a statement from Nautilus Solar:
- CMP Utility Bill: Shows your total monthly energy usage. The month's solar generation is deducted from your CMP bill in kilowatt-hours (kWh), reducing the amount you owe to CMP.
- Nautilus Solar statement: The solar energy generated by your solar farm is not free. Instead, it is billed separately by Nautilus at a 15% discount on what CMP would charge you.
Yes, you pay two bills, but you are still saving money every month.
Note: Your monthly savings are not impacted if you use dual billing over the one-bill option.
What does your Nautilus Solar statement look like?
How does this work with your CMP bill?
It’s important to remember that the 402 kWhs of solar energy deducted from your utility bill are instead charged on a separate Nautilus bill at a 15% discount of what CMP would charge you.
Below is the calculation of 620 kWh at CMP’s standard rates to calculate the charges for the energy.
Supply Charges represent the cost of generating energy for your home or business.
Delivery charges are also calculated. With CMP, the charge a flat rate for the first 50 kWH of energy and the rest at a variable rate as seen below.
Delivery charges represent the cost to move electricity through the grid to your home or business.
What would this customer’s CMP charges have been without Nautilus Community Solar?
Utility Bill: $154.67
+ Nautilus Solar Bill: $68.95
+Money you could save with solar: $12.17
=$235.79
With community solar, this customer saved $12.17, and only paid $223.62.
When will I receive my Nautilus statements?
For customers with dual billing, CMP will likely send you a statement just a few days after your billing period ends. Your invoice for the same period from Nautilus Solar Energy may lag by 1-2 months. This delay reflects the time it takes for CMP to send us details about your monthly solar credit generation.
When will I receive my first bill from Nautilus?
Once we place you on an active solar farm, you can expect your first invoice within 1-3 billing cycles.
Frequently Asked Billing Questions
What Are Solar Credits?
Solar credits are simply the amount of energy generated by Nautilus Solar instead of CMP. This energy is deducted from your CMP bill and is charged by Nautilus Solar instead at a discount.
What Are Banked Credits?
Extra monthly energy generation is “banked” for use during months when your solar farm generates less. These banked credits are automatically applied when your allocated kWhs are less than your monthly usage. You only pay for these credits once they are used.
You do not need to take any action to use banked credits.
Banked credits expire 12 months from the date generated if not used.
Is Autopay Required
Yes. Autopay is required for all Nautilus Solar customers.
You can update your payment method (credit card, debit card, or bank account) by logging in to your customer account at https://nautilussolar.com/account.
Can I Receive a Paper Bill from Nautilus?
Unfortunately, we do not offer a paper bill option for our monthly community solar statements. Instead, we send your monthly statement to the email address on your account.
You can update your preferred email address under ‘Contact Preferences’ in your customer account at https://nautilussolar.com/account.
Still Have Questions?
No worries! We know energy bills can sometimes be confusing, and we want you to be confident in your solar savings.
Give us a call at (866) 969-4129 or send us an email at customercare@nautilussolar.com.