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David Raymond Amos‏ @DavidRayAmos
Methinks Nick Brown should fess up and admit that his latest boss Higgy don't care about NB Power raising rates. He is merely trying to inspire the narrative before he has the writ dropped N'esy Pas?


https://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.com/2020/07/nb-powers-rate-hike-plan-for-april-1.html



 #nbpoli #cdnpoli



https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/nb-power-planned-rate-hike-pandemic-limbo-1.5669716

NB Power's rate hike plan for April 1 has been caught in pandemic limbo

'Increasing electricity prices at the wrong time may slow the economic recovery'

Robert Jones · CBC News · Posted: Jul 31, 2020 7:00 AM AT



NB Power has long struggled to fulfill two competing goals: keeping rates for customers low and its own finances healthy. (Radio-Canada)

A rate increase NB Power was hoping to have in place April 1 to help boost its troubled finances is still in limbo heading toward next month as the province and utility both ponder when customers and the economy might be ready to absorb higher prices.

"Increasing electricity prices at the wrong time may slow the economic recovery and hurt our most vulnerable citizens," said province of New Brunswick spokesperson Nick Brown in an email Thursday.

In February, NB Power presented its case to a full Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) hearing for a 1.9 per cent increase in rates to take effect April 1 but on March 19, with a ruling imminent the utility requested an indefinite suspension of the application in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Many businesses are closed or at reduced operation for an unknown time frame and many employees of those businesses have been affected as a result," said then NB Power president Gaetan Thomas in a letter to the EUB 

"NB Power has concluded that a rate increase implemented on April 1, 2020 would be counterproductive."

In January's State of the Province address Premier Blaine Higgs said NB Power had to 'immediately' come up with a plan to deal with its 'unacceptable debt.' Two months later the utility's finances were being battered by the COVID-19 pandemic. (Stephen MacGillivray/Canadian Press)

The utility said it would inform the EUB when a better time for an increase presented itself "In consultation with the Government of New Brunswick" but four months later the suspension continues with no word yet when the EUB will be released to deliver its rate decision and the utility freed up to charge customers more.

Marc Belliveau, a spokesperson for NB Power, suggested there is no decision on the immediate horizon.

• NB Power spending on private sector projects questioned 

• NB Power finances suffered $65.7M hit in March from COVID-19

"NB Power continues to monitor the impact of COVID-19 on its customers and its operations, which includes the impact of the timing of the EUB decision on rates," Belliveau said in an email.

 

NB Power lawyer John Furey guided the utility's application for an April 1 rate increase through a seven day hearing in February only to have the company suspend the request in March. (CBC)

Complicating the issue is that NB Power's own finances have been battered by the pandemic, worsening its already considerable money problems. 

Two weeks ago the utility declared a $16 million loss for the fiscal year ended in March, its first year of negative earnings in a decade.  

Expensive delay

In the current year, NB Power has been budgeting for a modest $40.9 million profit, but that was put together long before the global economy began contracting in March and assumed a full rate increase beginning April 1st.

At the hearing in February the utility's director of financial planning Diane Fraser estimated any delay past April 1 for an NB Power increase would be expensive.

 

Energy and Utilities Board vice-chair Francois Beaulieu said in March a decision on NB Power's application for a 1.9 per cent rate increase on April 1 was "imminent" before the utility applied for a pandemic related suspension. Four months later the increase is still pending. (Graham Thompson/CBC)

"The effect of the delay of an increase roughly I would say its between two and three million dollars per month," said Fraser.

NB Power is under strict instructions by the Higgs government to lower its debt levels significantly by 2027, a directive that the current rate freeze is not helping.

• NB Power makes final plea to EUB for 1.9% rate hike

• Seasonal power rates lack support and upset 'social compact,' NB Power tells EUB

But there are also political issues to be weighed, with a series of byelections, if not a general election, coming by the end of the year.

The province says it is aware of the financial pressure NB Power is under but has other issues to worry about as well.

"As we continue to deal with the pandemic, government is trying to balance the needs of New Brunswickers while keeping its fiscal house in order," said Brown.

"We continue to have discussions with NB Power and recognize the utility's need to recover their costs and not add to their long-term debt."

NB Power has reduced or delayed some capital spending plans for the year, including the temporary suspension of its application to acquire and deploy smart meters in New Brunswick which Brown said has been helping to cut the utility's costs. 

CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices

 





39 Comments 
Commenting is now closed for this story.






David Amos
Content disabled
Methinks Nick Brown should fess up and admit that his latest boss Higgy don't care about NB Power raising rates. He is merely trying to inspire the narrative before he has the writ dropped.

Some folks must recall Gallant promising to freeze NB Power's rates during the last election then he took it back  in order to get support from the Greens as he tried to remain the boss. Now Higgy is playing the same game. This is particularly egregious to me after watching Higgy support the NB Power late filing for a rate increase as soon as the PANB allowed him to have the mandate.However the second bid for "Not So Smart" Meters and another rate increase took the cake N'esy Pas?









David Amos

Methinks the EUB and NB Power should also rethink what they did against me during the last hearing N'esy Pas?

David Peters

Reply to @David Amos:
When exactly, and where exactly was the last eub meeting?

David Amos

Reply to @David Peters: Ask this dude He works for you and I do not

Good afternoon,
It is my recollection that the Brattle presentation session originally scheduled for December 2019 included the opportunity for parties to make a presentation at that session after the Brattle Group presentation had concluded. Can the Board please confirm whether this is still the case for the May 12 session, or are parties limited to providing a written submission per the letter distributed today? Thank you,
Steve
__________________________________

Stephen A. Waycott
Director, Corporate Regulatory Affairs
New Brunswick Power Corporation 

David Peters

Reply to @David Amos:
...and when you write in a question and the eub doesn't bother to answer?

These meetings are done secretly. Why?
How is that in NB's best interest?

Price controls are socialism, and only benifits a very few at the top.

Alex Butt 

NB power is such a corrupt, mismanaged money making machine that will NEVER change. The only thing Mr thomas et al are interested is taking our hard earned money to cover for all their failings past, present and future all the while collecting huge pay-cheques and bonuses .

David Peters 

Reply to @Alex Butt:
It's a thinly veiled cash cow, patronage appointment scheme, imo

David Amos 

Reply to @Alex Butt: Methinks Mr Jones and everybody else knows that Mr Thomas also asked the EUB not to make a decision about NB Power's second bid for "Not Smart Meters" before he left the scene. However the "et al" remains the same in this ongoing circus within the EUB N'esy Pas?

David Amos 

Content disabled

Reply to @David Peters: Methinks a lot of folks must get very frustrated after wasting a lot of precious time awaiting moderation by people who purportedly work for us only to see red bar in the end as their words go 'Poof" N'esy Pas?

David Peters 

NBers would be much better off if the energy market were opened up to free market competition. 

  

Fred Brewer

Reply to @David Peters: I agree. The sad truth is that we were on a path to achieve free market competition but it got derailed. Step one was to separate the transmission business from the generation business and that step was completed by establishing an independent transmission system operator. Step two was to allow competition. The system operator could sell transmission rights to any generator so they could use those transmission lines to sell power directly to end users. Sadly this step never happened and the independent system operator was dissolved and folded back into NB Power. What a waste of time and money.

David Peters

Reply to @Fred Brewer:
Imagine being able to enter the energy generation sector as a small business...or to be able to invest in a well run local energy production business.

A few ppl have taken this away from NBers and stuck them with a massive bill.

David Amos 

Reply to @Fred Brewer: Methinks whereas you claim to know so much I should ask why you did not bother to appear at any of the EUB Hearings and fixed things for us N'esy Pas?

David Peters

Reply to @David Amos:
How do you know that eub even bothers to answer email submissions?

David Peters

Reply to @David Amos:
Is that why the eub meetings timings and locations are kept secret, to avoid having to answer questions?

Fred Brewer 

Reply to @David Peters: Agreed. There is no substitute for open competition. Consumers always win. This has been proven time after time. Having choices is wonderful. When you are unhappy with your internet or cable TV provider, you just switch providers. This is what free, open markets are all about. Monopolies are detrimental to ratepayers and NB Power is proof of that.

Jen Corvec 

Reply to @Fred Brewer: But we haven't got a choice in NB for cable and internet either...just 2 awful companies with horrible service over and over.

Fred Brewer 

Reply to @Jen Corvec: You raise a good point but just think how much worse it would be if you had no other option. Then there would be no incentive whatsover to provide better service, more features or better pricing. But if we had two or three more new competitors in NB then you would see a real battle shaping up for your business. That is where a free market would really start to shine. 

 

David Amos

Reply to @David Peters: I never said any of that

David Amos

Reply to @David Amos: Its not my fault i am blocked when i do explain things

Ben Round

I can't understand why CBC news reader read this on radio with the tone of " poor NB Power can't get their raise" as if we should feel bad for them

David Amos

Reply to @Ben Round: Unions

Terry Tibbs

Reply to @David Amos: unicorns

Ray Oliver

Reply to @David Amos: And the problem with unions is???


Ray Oliver 

Reply to @David Amos: You seem very concerned on the Hydro prices for a hobo 

























 

Terry Tibbs

Isn't this financial shortfall the direct result of investing (gambling) their slush fund and watching their investments shrink by approximately 25%?
Making the moral of the story: don't gamble other people's money.

David Amos

Reply to @Terry Tibbs: I concur

Ben Haroldson

We should sell that outfit.

Fred Brewer

Reply to @Ben Haroldson: Agreed. NB Power is the albatross that hangs around the neck of New Brunswick.

Terry Tibbs

Reply to @Fred Brewer:
Only because the management team reads like a list of the who is who of patronage appointments.

Terry Tibbs

Reply to @Ben Haroldson:
Why sell? It's a business owner's dream. A product everyone wants and needs, and a captive customer base, what could possibly go wrong?
What, in this case, "goes wrong", is the patronage appointments to upper management of a bunch of "do nothings/know nothings", who, out of boredom, get the idea in their heads, that gambling the slush fund is a "good idea".

Alex Butt

Reply to @Ben Haroldson: That was tried years ago but the NB sheep cried to save their beloved power company. Now we all pay the price!

Fred Brewer

Reply to @Terry Tibbs: I think you are only partially correct. The problem is systemic and flows from the Board of Directors down to senior and middle management. To rectify the problem you would likely need to clean house and replace up to 100 people and we all know that will never happen unless the business is sold. A new owner's first task would be to clean house and they would do it and they would have their own managers who actually know how to operate efficiently and how to make this business profitable on an ongoing basis.

David Amos
Reply to @Ben Haroldson: I disagree However NB Power should finally be audited and a lot of people need to be held accountable\