From: Cross, Sarah (LTGOV) <Sarah.Cross@gnb.ca>
Date: Mon, Jul 29, 2024 at 3:50 PM
Subject: Automatic reply: Meet the man on a mission to lower NB Power bills
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
I am currently out of the office. Please contact Judy Wagner if you require immediate assistance at judy.wagner@gnb.ca.
Je suis absente du bureau. Si vous avez besoin des informations, veuillez contacter Judy Wagner au judy.wagner@gnb.ca.
From: Fitch, Bruce Hon. (DH/MS) <Bruce.Fitch@gnb.ca>
Date: Mon, Jul 29, 2024 at 3:50 PM
Subject: Automatic reply: Meet the man on a mission to lower NB Power bills
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Thank you for your email. Your thoughts, comments and input are greatly valued. You can be assured that all emails and letters are carefully read, reviewed and taken into consideration.
If your request is Constituency relate, please contact Kathy Connors, Executive Assistant, at my Constituency office in Riverview at Kathy.Connors@gnb.ca or by phone at 506-869-6117.
Thanks again for your email.
Hon. Bruce Fitch
MLA for Riverview
------------------------------
Merci pour votre courriel. Nous vous sommes très reconnaissants de nous avoir fait part de vos idées. Nous tenons à vous assurer que nous lisons attentivement et prenons en considération tous les courriels et les lettres que nous recevons.
Si votre demande est liée à la circonscription, veuillez contacter Kathy Connors à mon bureau de circonscription à Riverview à Kathy.Connors@gnb.ca ou par téléphone au 506-869-6117.
Merci encore pour votre courriel.
L'hon. Bruce Fitch
Député de Riverview
From: Moore, Rob - M.P. <Rob.Moore@parl.gc.ca>
Date: Mon, Jul 29, 2024 at 3:50 PM
Subject: Automatic reply: Meet the man on a mission to lower NB Power bills
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Thank you for contacting the Honourable Rob Moore, P.C., M.P. office. We appreciate the time you took to get in touch with our office.
If you did not already, please ensure to include your full contact details on your email and the appropriate staff will be able to action your request. We strive to ensure all constituent correspondence is responded to in a timely manner.
If your question or concern is time sensitive, please call our office: 506-832-4200.
Again, we thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and concerns.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Office of the Honourable Rob Moore, P.C., M.P.
Member of Parliament for Fundy Royal
From: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jul 29, 2024 at 3:50 PM
Subject: Meet the man on a mission to lower NB Power bills
To: blaine.higgs <blaine.higgs@gnb.ca>, Mitton, Megan (LEG) <megan.mitton@gnb.ca>, David.Coon <David.Coon@gnb.ca>, keith.chiasson <keith.chiasson@gnb.ca>, jacques.j.leblanc <jacques.j.leblanc@gnb.ca>, jean-claude.d'amours <jean-claude.d'amours@gnb.ca>, robert.mckee <robert.mckee@gnb.ca>, robert.gauvin <robert.gauvin@gnb.ca>, Mark.Blakely <Mark.Blakely@rcmp-grc.gc.ca>, martin.gaudet <martin.gaudet@fredericton.ca>, premier <premier@gnb.ca>, Dominic.Cardy <dominic.cardy@gnb.ca>, Arseneau, Kevin (LEG) <kevin.a.arseneau@gnb.ca>, Ross.Wetmore <Ross.Wetmore@gnb.ca>, John.Williamson <John.Williamson@parl.gc.ca>, rob.moore <rob.moore@parl.gc.ca>, Bill.Oliver <Bill.Oliver@gnb.ca>, Trevor.Holder <Trevor.Holder@gnb.ca>, jeff.carr <jeff.carr@gnb.ca>, Daniel.J.Allain <Daniel.J.Allain@gnb.ca>, Dorothy.Shephard <Dorothy.Shephard@gnb.ca>, andrea.anderson-mason <andrea.anderson-mason@gnb.ca>, Susan.Holt <susan.holt@gnb.ca>, ltgov <LTgov@gnb.ca>, bruce.fitch <bruce.fitch@gnb.ca>, Benoit.Bourque <Benoit.Bourque@gnb.ca>, Rene.Legacy <Rene.Legacy@gnb.ca>, guy.arseneault <guy.arseneault@gnb.ca>, chuck.chiasson <chuck.chiasson@gnb.ca>, Robert. Jones <Robert.Jones@cbc.ca>, louis-philippe.gauthier@cfib.ca <louis-philippe.gauthier@cfib.ca>, frederic.gionet@cfib.ca <frederic.gionet@cfib.ca>, <david@ibew37.com>, david.sollows@gnb.ca <david.sollows@gnb.ca>, <mike.legere@adityabirla.com>, Ron Marcolin <Ron.marcolin@cme-mec.ca>, <executivedirector@forestnb.com>, Brandy.Gellner@libertyutilities.com <Brandy.Gellner@libertyutilities.com>, JohnFurey@fureylegal.com <JohnFurey@fureylegal.com>, Leanne <LMurray@nbpower.com>, Jamie <JPetrie@nbpower.com>, Darren <DaMurphy@nbpower.com>, George <George.Porter@nbpower.com>, McKay, Pam <pmckay@nbpower.com>, Gordon, Laura <lgordon@nbpower.com>, Gibson, Kevin <kevgibson@nbpower.com>, NBP Regulatory <NBPRegulatory@nbpower.com>, NBEUB/CESPNB <General@nbeub.ca>, Dave <Dave.Young@nbeub.ca>, Aherrington@lawsoncreamer.com <Aherrington@lawsoncreamer.com>, Michael <Michael.Dickie@nbeub.ca>, Kathleen <Kathleen.Mitchell@nbeub.ca>, Veronique Otis <Veronique.Otis@nbeub.ca>, Susan Colwell <Susan.Colwell@nbeub.ca>, Melissa Curran <Melissa.Curran@nbeub.ca>, Len <len.hoyt@mcinnescooper.com>, jeff.garrett@sjenergy.com <jeff.garrett@sjenergy.com>, shelley.wood@sjenergy.com <shelley.wood@sjenergy.com>, dan.dionne@perth-andover.com <dan.dionne@perth-andover.com>, pierreroy@edmundston.ca <pierreroy@edmundston.ca>, <ryan.mitchell@sjenergy.com>, Zarnett, Paula <pzarnett@bdrenergy.com>, rburgoyne@coxandpalmer.com <rburgoyne@coxandpalmer.com>, <hwafaei@stikeman.com>, gzacher@stikeman.com <gzacher@stikeman.com>, Hanrahan, Dion <hanrahan.dion@jdirving.com>, alain.chiasson2@gnb.ca <alain.chiasson2@gnb.ca>, <randy@sjhdc.ca>, <dustin@emrydia.com>, rdk <rdk@indecon.com>, <shelley@nbcpd.org>
https://tj.news/new-brunswick/meet-the-man-with-a-singular-mission-to-lower-nb-power-bills
Meet the man on a mission to lower NB Power bills
Randy Hatfield wants to convince the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board low-income people should be cut a break from 20 per cent hikes
There’s one man sitting near the back of the room who’s stood out in hearings to decide if NB Power should charge the biggest electrical hike in a lifetime.
Quiet, unassuming Randy Hatfield isn’t a lawyer among the interveners. The executive director of the Human Development Council, an anti-poverty organization in Saint John, is appearing for the first time at such hearings with a singular mission: to ensure a low-income energy rebate program is created.
“People are hurting,” he told Brunswick News on Wednesday at the Fredericton Convention Centre, site of the latest hearing of the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board. “Despite all the Chamber of Commerce boosterism out there, I see it every day in Waterloo Village.”
Hatfield, who on most days works in Saint John’s vulnerable neighbourhood near the city centre, is deeply concerned that if NB Power successfully convinces the independent board to boost rates this year and next for a combined near-20 per cent increase, poor people will be devastated.
We need to know where we have to put pressure.
Randy Hatfield
He’s hoping the three-member board will take an unprecedented step, such as ordering NB Power to create a comprehensive energy poverty strategy, including a low-income rebate program, the kind of discount offered in other places.
According to the council’s research, more than one in three New Brunswickers – 36.3 per cent – are considered energy poor, paying more than six per cent of their after-tax income to light and heat their homes. That’s nearly twice the national average of 18.4 per cent and the highest figure of any province.
“We need to know where we have to put pressure,” Hatfield said. “NB Power is saying, ‘we lack the authority to introduce something like a low-income rebate. Go to the province.’ But I’m not sure that’s the case, and I don’t think it’s ever been argued before the board. Or if it has, it was a long time ago. And I think that needs to be revisited.”
As part of a tag team effort, on Thursday at the hearing, Shelley Petit, the chair of the New Brunswick Coalition of Persons with Disabilities, appeared virtually to ask questions of a panel of NB Power officials that included a rate design specialist and manager of customer care.
We’re paying for the mismanagement of the last 10 decades.
Shelley Petit
She told the panel that she’d done an informal survey of 50 people she knows with disabilities, and the average was paying nearly a quarter of their after-tax income on electricity, an astonishing amount.
The proposed residential rate hike this year of 9.8 per cent and a further 9.8 per cent jump next year are unaffordable, she argued.
“We’re paying for the mismanagement of the last 10 decades,” she said of the public utility.
Shelley Petit, the chair of the New Brunswick Coalition of Persons with Disabilities, says NB Power needs to do more to ensure people on low incomes are not disconnected. Photo by John Chilibeck/ Brunswick News
Later in the session, Hatfield questioned the same panel in person, asking why NB Power hadn’t created any affordability policies specifically to help low-income customers, many of whom are in arrears on their bills and worried about being disconnected.
Veronique Stevenson, a rate design specialist with NB Power, pointed out that if poorer customers were cut a special break, others would have to pay for their electricity.
“It would put the burden on other customers,” she said. “They may be paying their bills on time, but that doesn’t mean they’re not struggling.”
The number of customers who were in arrears – missing at least one monthly bill payment – peaked the year before the pandemic. In the 2018-2019 fiscal year, more than 59,000 residential customers, or 18 per cent of the total, were late paying their bills.
The numbers went down during the COVID-19 crisis, likely because rates were frozen and people who weren’t working had their incomes supplemented by Ottawa.
But the numbers have been steadily going up. In the 2022-2023 fiscal year, close to 45,000 residential customers were behind on bill payments, about 13 per cent.
The average unpaid bill for each customer was $254.77.
Likewise, customers being disconnected also went down during the pandemic because NB Power decided to be less strict when there was so much illness going around and job losses. In the year before the pandemic, 4,611 were disconnected.
In 2021, the number of disconnects was just 746. Last year, it had crept back up to 3,580.
Hatfield said it was proof that NB Power could change its policies to meet social goals.
Christina Schneider, the utility’s manager of customer care, emphasized that her staff of 15 responsible for late collections had been trained to be considerate and caring. Customers with late bills are encouraged to go on a three-month repayment plan, which can be extended to six months or even longer, if circumstances are dire.
“Caring for our customers is something my team hangs their hat on,” Schneider said.
Hatfield said he appreciated the sentiment, but wondered why NB Power hadn’t created rules around affordability and the ability for customers to pay for electricity.
Stephenson replied that such proposed changes had to be made at the highest levels of NB Power or the provincial government.
“This is a taxpayer versus ratepayer question,” she said. “It’s really more of a policy question I can’t answer.”
As part of its evidence, the Human Development Council hopes to present two of its researchers before the hearing that could serve on a panel, the same way NB Power officials and other energy experts have appeared.
Lawyers representing various interests question these experts for hours. The chief interrogators have been lawyers for the big, energy-intensive timber firm J.D. Irving, Limited, the group of municipal energy utilities such as Saint John Energy, the public intervener and the board itself.
Researchers Liam Fisher and Heather Atcheson will likely appear at the hearings in August, their day in the sun to counter the gloom over high power bills.
One difficulty would be to figure out who would pay for such a low-energy rebate program.
NB Power is a cost-of-service utility and tries to recover most of its money from its more than 400,000 customers.
Short of the provincial government intervening with taxpayer funds, offering such a program would mean the rest of NB Power customers, both commercial and residential, would have to pay more.
From: Shelley Petit <chairperson@nbcpd.org>
Date: Thu, May 16, 2024 at 11:20 AM
Subject: Re: Matter 552 - NB Power 2024-2025 And Games People Play
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
---------- Original message ----------From: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Feb 16, 2024 at 3:06 AM
Subject: Re: Matter 552 - NB Power 2024-2025 And Games People Play
To: blaine.higgs <blaine.higgs@gnb.ca>, Holland, Mike (LEG) <mike.holland@gnb.ca>, Mitton, Megan (LEG) <megan.mitton@gnb.ca>, David.Coon <David.Coon@gnb.ca>, <keith.chiasson@gnb.ca>, <jacques.j.leblanc@gnb.ca>, <jean-claude.d'amours@gnb.ca>, <robert.mckee@gnb.ca>, <robert.gauvin@gnb.ca>, <Mark.Blakely@rcmp-grc.gc.ca>, martin.gaudet <martin.gaudet@fredericton.ca>, premier <premier@gnb.ca>, <dominic.cardy@gnb.ca>, Arseneau, Kevin (LEG) <kevin.a.arseneau@gnb.ca>, Ross.Wetmore <Ross.Wetmore@gnb.ca>, John.Williamson <John.Williamson@parl.gc.ca>, rob.moore <rob.moore@parl.gc.ca>, Bill.Oliver <Bill.Oliver@gnb.ca>, Trevor.Holder <Trevor.Holder@gnb.ca>, jeff.carr <jeff.carr@gnb.ca>, Daniel.J.Allain <Daniel.J.Allain@gnb.ca>, <Dorothy.Shephard@gnb.ca>, andrea.anderson-mason <andrea.anderson-mason@gnb.ca> , <susan.holt@gnb.ca>, <LTgov@gnb.ca>, bruce.fitch <bruce.fitch@gnb.ca>, Benoit.Bourque <Benoit.Bourque@gnb.ca>, Rene.Legacy <Rene.Legacy@gnb.ca>, guy.arseneault <guy.arseneault@gnb.ca>, chuck.chiasson <chuck.chiasson@gnb.ca>, Robert. Jones <Robert.Jones@cbc.ca>, rrichard <rrichard@nb.aibn.com>
Cc: louis-philippe.gauthier@cfib.ca <louis-philippe.gauthier@cfib. ca>, frederic.gionet@cfib.ca <frederic.gionet@cfib.ca>, <david@ibew37.com>, david.sollows@gnb.ca <david.sollows@gnb.ca>, <mike.legere@adityabirla.com>, <Ron.marcolin@cme-mec.ca>, <executivedirector@forestnb. com>, Brandy.Gellner@ libertyutilities.com <Brandy.Gellner@ libertyutilities.com>, JohnFurey@fureylegal.com <JohnFurey@fureylegal.com>, Murray, Leanne <LMurray@nbpower.com>, Petrie, Jamie <JPetrie@nbpower.com>, Murphy, Darren <DaMurphy@nbpower.com>, Porter, George <George.Porter@nbpower.com>, <pmckay@nbpower.com>, <lgordon@nbpower.com>, <kevgibson@nbpower.com>, NBP Regulatory <NBPRegulatory@nbpower.com>, NBEUB/CESPNB <General@nbeub.ca>, Young, Dave <Dave.Young@nbeub.ca>, Aherrington@lawsoncreamer.com <Aherrington@lawsoncreamer.com >, Dickie, Michael <Michael.Dickie@nbeub.ca>, Mitchell, Kathleen <Kathleen.Mitchell@nbeub.ca>, Veronique Otis <Veronique.Otis@nbeub.ca>, Susan Colwell <Susan.Colwell@nbeub.ca>, Melissa Curran <Melissa.Curran@nbeub.ca>, Hoyt, Len <len.hoyt@mcinnescooper.com>, jeff.garrett@sjenergy.com <jeff.garrett@sjenergy.com>, shelley.wood@sjenergy.com <shelley.wood@sjenergy.com>, dan.dionne@perth-andover.com <dan.dionne@perth-andover.com> , pierreroy@edmundston.ca <pierreroy@edmundston.ca>, <ryan.mitchell@sjenergy.com>, <pzarnett@bdrenergy.com>, rburgoyne@coxandpalmer.com <rburgoyne@coxandpalmer.com>, <hwafaei@stikeman.com>, gzacher@stikeman.com <gzacher@stikeman.com>, <hanrahan.dion@jdirving.com>, alain.chiasson2@gnb.ca <alain.chiasson2@gnb.ca>, <randy@sjhdc.ca>, <dustin@emrydia.com>, <rdk@indecon.com>, <shelley@nbcpd.org>
---------- Original message ----------
From: John Furey <JohnFurey@fureylegal.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2024 20:31:03 +0000
Subject: Automatic reply: RE Matter 552 - NB Power 2024-2025 Its
obvious Holland's minions in NB Power are pulling a fast one within
the EUB before Higgy has a writ dopped an Mikey is out a job
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
I am away from my office until Tuesday, February 20, 2024, and have
limited access to email. If your matter requires immediate attention,
please contact me directly at 506-444-1328.
https://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.com/2024/02/nb-power- facing-326m-revenue-loss- after.html
Monday 5 February 2024
Games People Play
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/nb-power- rate-request-1.7108327
Delayed N.B. Power rate request promoted as a government achievement by PC Party
Premier Blaine Higgs personally credited with thwarting increase
despite ordering utility to shape up
Robert Jones · CBC News · Posted: Feb 08, 2024 6:00 AM AST
Saint John wind farm undercuts N.B. Power electricity prices by more than half
Provincial utility warns of trouble if too many customers choose self-generation of energy to save money
Electricity generated at the Burchill wind farm in Saint John and sold to Saint John Energy in 2023 undercut prices being charged to the municipal utility by N.B. Power by more than half, new figures suggest.
It's a discount so deep it has N.B. Power concerned about others making a similar choice to bypass its system, and pricing, in a similar way.
"There is an electricity system that needs to be paid paid for," Brad Coady, the N.B. Power vice-president, said last month during an Energy and Utilities Board hearing into the utility's proposed new rates.
"To the extent that customers have the wherewithal to escape N.B. Power being their supplier of choice, that causes cost-shifting onto other customers. That's the concern."
Saint John Energy will not directly say what it paid last year for electricity coming from the wind farm, claiming the amount to be confidential.
"The power purchase agreement with Burchill Wind is commercially and competitively sensitive so we will be unable to confirm the price," company spokesperson Jessica DeLong wrote in an email
However, the utility has disclosed enough information in bits and pieces over the last several weeks to suggest the price in 2023 was $41 per megawatt hour.
Burchill, which is jointly owned by the Neqotkuk Maliseet Nation at Tobique and the Nova Scotia-based wind energy company Natural Forces, officially opened in June 2023.
Saint
John Energy is hoping to displace 15 per cent of the electricity it
used to buy from N.B. Power with energy it buys from the Burchill wind
farm, more than 135,000 megawatt hours a year. (Robert Jones/CBC News)
According to DeLong, it sold 76,900 megawatt hours of electricity to Saint John Energy by the end of December 2023.
In annual financial statements issued last month Saint John Energy reported that it paid the Burchill Wind partnership $3.15 million during 2023 for its output. Combining those two pieces of information appears to put the price of electricity from Burchill at $41 per megawatt hour.
That's less than half the $106 per megawatt hour that N.B. Power charged Saint John Energy for supplying the bulk of electricity used in the city during 2023.
The savings from the wind facility were steep enough, even from a half-year of production, to allow Saint John Energy to post record net income of $5.1 million in 2023.
It also allowed the utility to implement a rate increase of 9.27 per cent for residential customers in Saint John in April, despite N.B. Power raising what it charges Saint John Energy and its own residential customers 9.8 per cent.
Those financial benefits come despite Saint John Energy having to spend millions of dollars on new transmission and distribution infrastructure to handle the new Burchill wind supply after N.B. Power declined to allow the electricity onto its own wires, even for a fee.
Saint
John Energy is one of N.B. Power's largest customers. Figures suggest
it pays the Burchill Wind Project less than half what N.B. Power charges
it. (Shane Fowler/CBC News)
At Saint John Energy's annual general meeting in June, company president Ryan Mitchell said the financial benefits of escaping complete dependence on N.B. Power and its prices have been significant.
"The long-term agreement we have in place to buy all of the electricity from the wind farm at a fixed price helps ensure price stability," Mitchell said.
Coady said Saint John Energy's wind project has been the largest loss of volume to an outside energy supplier experienced so far, but he noted the trend toward self-reliance has been growing "exponentially" among N.B. Power customers as rates climb.
N.B.
Power president Lori Clark and chief financial officer Darren Murphy
leave a rate hearing in June. Clark testified utility customers who
bypass N.B. Power to buy electricity from third parties put a strain on
the provincial system. (Pat Richard/CBC)
"It's not sustainable," he said about the possibility of significant numbers of large and small customers generating electricity on their own.
"Who would be left to pay for the system that we enjoy?"
N.B. Power president Lori Clark echoed that point and hinted that more thought has to be put into how to treat customers who, like Saint John Energy, have found a way to access N.B. Power services while avoiding some of its charges.
"When they want to use N.B. Power as a backup, when the wind isn't blowing or the sun isn't shining, then there's a cost for us to continue to maintain that infrastructure in the event that a customer wants to use it," Clark said.
"When a customer leaves then it leaves those costs for the infrastructure to be recovered by other customers on the system."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
N.B. Power facing $71M bill for generator troubles at idle nuclear plant
Utility rejects suggestion Lepreau spending throws 'good money after bad'
A problem in the massive electrical generator at the Point Lepreau nuclear station that has been delaying its return to service will take several more weeks to resolve and cost an expected $71 million in repairs and lost production, N.B. Power estimates.
But the actual problem with the one million horsepower generator, which was discovered nearly a month ago, hasn't been fully diagnosed yet, and the utility warned costs could climb if a fix takes longer than expected.
"You said early September is when you are estimating. Is that sort of a best case scenario?" asked J.D. Irving lawyer Glen Zacher about the Lepreau generator, during N.B. Power's rate hearing on Monday.
"Yes, that would be fair," replied Jason Nouwens, Lepreau's director of regulatory and external affairs.
Nouwens declined to say what a worst case scenario for the repair might be.
The Lepreau plant has been offline since early April for what was supposed to be a $137 million, three-month maintenance shutdown.
No work was done on the station's main generator as part of that program, and according to Nouwens there was no reason to because it was operating normally in the spring.
"We do have monitoring on the generator," said Nouwens. "Those monitoring systems did not identify that there was an issue and the generator was operating properly when we shut down."
But after sitting idle for three months, the generator showed a problem during routine testing done on all plant equipment prior to being restarted, Nouwens said, and there is no alternative but to keep Lepreau idle until the malfunction is fully diagnosed and repaired.
N.B.
Power is seeking approval to raise rates in some cases by 20 per cent
over two years to help with its ongoing financial problems. (Michael Heenan/CBC)
"It has to be remedied now," he said.
Nouwens said engineers at the plant believe they have traced the problem to what he said was a single "stator bar" in the generator but they still do not know how or why the malfunction occurred.
Currently the generator is being disassembled to retrieve and replace the defective piece and to investigate what caused it to stop working properly.
Once the engineers are satisfied they fully understand what happened, the generator will be pieced back together and the station will be restarted sometime around Sept. 7. However, that will depend on the puzzling failure being completely resolved.
The problem comes at a difficult time for the financially-battered utility.
More than a decade of equipment failures and disappointing performance at the nuclear plant has left N.B. Power more than $5.3 billion in debt, with multi-billion dollar capital projects on its horizon.
The
Bayside natural gas generating station, right, is supposed to be
undergoing an extensive maintenance outage to prepare for winter
production, but has had to keep operating to compensate for problems at
N.B. Power's nuclear plant. (Robert Jones/CBC)
N.B. Power is currently in the process of asking the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board to raise rates by an average of 19.4 per cent over two years to begin fixing its financial problems. That would mean rates rise 9.25 per cent this year and another 9.25 per cent beginning next April.
Proposed increases to residential and large industrial customers are even higher, totalling 20.6 per cent over the two years.
The shutdown at Lepreau is also having cascading effects throughout the utility.
Planned maintenance outages N.B. Power's thermal generating stations in Belledune and Bayside to prepare them for the winter have both had to be delayed while they compensate for Lepreau being idle for more than five months.
Energy
and Utilities Board member Christopher Stewart is presiding over a
three-person panel that is evaluating N.B. Power's request for two years
of large rate increases. (Pat Richard/CBC)
Zacher asked the utility if it has evaluated whether Lepreau's troubles outweigh its advantages or whether it is "all in" on supporting the nuclear plant, whatever the cost.
"At what point do you reach the inflection point where you consider yourself throwing good money after bad?" asked Zacher.
Utility officials said despite its problems, the nuclear plant is a net benefit.
"While we have not seen the performance that we would ideally like with the amount we have spent in the past, we still have seen benefits from the operation of Point Lepreau," said N.B. Power's Craig Church.
"When that unit is running it is producing energy at a rate that is much lower than the alternatives that we have."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Interesting question
This is a machine. Machines have maintenance expenses. Do we really need a blow by blow on every one?
Reply to Wilbur Ross
Reply to Wilbur Ross
OR it could be driven by a water turbine in a dam.
Too funny, teacher needs to go back to skool.
NOT !!
N.B. Power proposal to end urban, rural rates would bump service charge by 15% for some
Utility proposes to merge categories to uniform rate of $28.97
N.B. Power's proposal to do away with separate urban and rural service charge rates would mean a 15 per cent monthly increase for some customers.
That proposal was spurred by New Brunswick's local governance reform, according to N.B. Power staff appearing before the province's Energy and Utilities Board last week.
N.B. Power rate design specialist Veronique Stevenson said those within municipal boundaries before those reforms took effect in January 2023 are now paying a cheaper urban rate.
While those brought into municipal boundaries in 2023 would technically fall into that same urban category, Stevenson said those households are still paying the more expensive rural rate.
N.B.
Power has missed its profit targets in each of the last four years by a
combined $252 million. This year it has informed both the Energy and
Utilities Board and the Department of Finance that profits are running
ahead of its budget projection. (Radio-Canada)
That's because transferring those households over to the urban rate would mean a considerable revenue loss for the utility, she said.
The Crown corporation's general rate application lists the existing urban and rural rates as $24.57 and $26.96 per month, respectively. It also has a "seasonal" category, which is also charged $26.96 per month.
N.B. Power proposes to merge the categories to a uniform rate of $28.97.
But that would mean a 15.1 per cent increase to the monthly service rate, or $3.70, for about 51 per cent of customers – those who would have previously been charged under the urban category.
Randy Hatfield worries the monthly service charge increase will disproportionately impact low-income people. (CBC)
While the remaining customers in the rural and seasonal categories will take on a 4.9 per cent increase, or $1.31 per month.
"So N.B. Power's proposal is asking urban customers to bear a higher increase in order to cover a lower increase for the rural and seasonal customers, that's the implication?" Abigail Herrington, counsel for the EUB, asked the panel on Thursday.
Stevenson agreed that urban customers "will certainly see a bit of a higher rate increase" if the changes are accepted by the board.
"Because it only applies to the service charge, customers with lower energy will see a higher percentage increase on their bill," Stevenson said.
Shelley
Petit of the New Brunswick Coalition of Persons with Disabilities said
the increase will be difficult for people with disabilities to absorb,
as many are on a fixed income. (Nipun Tiwari/ CBC News)
It's a disparity that Randy Hatfield, executive director at the Human Development Council in Saint John, worries will disproportionately impact low-income customers.
"Low-income people are better off with a lower monthly flat-rate charge. As low as possible," he said. "Because they tend to be users of a smaller amount of electricity, and they have some control or agency over how much they use."
He also pointed to a report from independent consultant Robert Knecht, hired by public intervenor Alain Chiasson, which says the overall increase across categories isn't justified.
Shelley Petit, who is representing the New Brunswick Coalition of Persons with Disabilities, also worries about how the change will affect people's bills and ability to access basic needs.
N.B. Power is proposing to merge its urban, rural and seasonal monthly service charges into one category. (N.B. Power/Facebook)
"These increases are portrayed as small, just a few dollars here and few dollars there, barely the price of a coffee a day, but we do not have that luxury of going out and buying a coffee," Petit said in a statement.
"Too many persons with disabilities are already eating only what is obtained from the food banks. They are being forced to skip treatments, uncovered medications and more."
She worries ultimately those on fixed incomes will not be able to handle the proposed increases.
Asked about the utility's reasoning for putting more of the increase on urban customers, N.B. Power spokesperson Dominique Couture referred CBC News to exhibit NBP11.41.
However, exhibit NBP11.41 does not provide a rationale, but lays out the increases in each category and bill impact.
CBC News requested comment from the province's Department of Local Government on Friday but did not receive a response.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
378 Comments
I hope Mr Outhouse has informed Higgy that I am still paying attention to this nonsense
Surprise Surprise Surprise
Reply to David Amos
Too Too Funny
Utility rejects suggestion Lepreau spending throws 'good money after bad'
Robert Jones · CBC News · Posted: Jul 22, 2024 7:20 PM ADT
Considering the huge increase that NB Power is looking for, this service charge thing is really pretty minor in the bigger scheme ( when one considers the customer impact due to a significant increase in the monthly power usage portion of the bill).
It’s strange that we’ve seen very little here on how the EUB proceedings are actually going.
David Amos
Reply to Don Corey
Amen
Dennis Woodman
Reply to Don Corey
$3 a month is a “huge “increase ?
David Amos
Content Deactivated
Reply to Dennis Woodman
Best read it again
Al Clark
Reply to Dennis Woodman
Yeah dayray is right it's actually 3.70 a month. What's that, an alpine at sobeys?
Don Corey
Reply to Wilbur Ross
Read my comment.
Any talk about making the big corporations pay for their rates like the rest of us.
Alison Jackson
Reply to Jos Allaire
Amen Brother.
Don Corey
Reply to Jos Allaire
It sure would be nice, but it won’t happen (regardless of the political stripe in power).
David Amos
Reply to Don Corey
Ditto
Dennis Woodman
Well at least they got a carve out on carbon taxes
Bill Gardiner
Reply to Dennis Woodman
You having a hard time with the 8 cents a liter?
Dennis Woodman
Reply to Bill Gardiner
It’s 17, how long we’re you asleep ?
Lynette Browne
Reply to Dennis Woodman
Not for home heating oil.
Alison Jackson
Reply to Dennis Woodman
A whole 17cents on a litre of gasoline which costs you $1.70/litre! Buy something cheaper on gas and stop blaming people trying to curb emissions.
Don Corey
Reply to Alison Jackson
That’s 10% of the gas price. It might not seem like much to you, but only because your job is to promote it. How’s that one working out?
Don Corey
Reply to Lynette Browne
That’s because of the Trudeau exemption that did nothing to improve his lowly standing in the polls.
Gordon MacFarlane
Reply to Don Corey
Beat me to it.
David Amos
Reply to Don Corey
Welcome back
serge montague
Reply to Bill Gardiner
You mean the 8 cents per litre that is going to "nudge" Canadians towards EVs? That cost should not be any financial burden for anyone and at the same time be a financial incentive to seek cheaper power ?? Yikes !
Lynette Browne
Reply to Don Corey
If you are feeling the effect of the carbon tax you have options to not use the high-emission fuels. Pretty simple, really. All about choices.
Lynette Browne
Reply to Don Corey
The temporary exemption was to help those more rural and lower income people who are/were using home heating oil to warm their houses. Nothing to do with gas prices. But, nice try.
Lynette Browne
Reply to serge montague
Yes, enough to notice, not enough to cause a financial burden. However, if anyone is complaining there are choices that can be made. Don't buy the high-emitting fuels. Choices.
serge montague
Reply to Lynette Browne
How could he feel the effects of the CT which has no significant impact on the cost of living ??
serge montague
Reply to Lynette Browne
With the vast majority being in the Lib voter rich maritime. Nice try lynette
Dennis Woodman
Reply to Lynette Browne
Yes, all you need to do is get rid of a perfectly good vehicle, and a perfectly good furnace . Go in a debt for both. Make sense ?
serge montague
Reply to Lynette Browne
Are we noticing it because it is "lowering" costs ?? And if it's not causing a financial burden how on earth is it offering financial "nudging"incentives ??
Lynette Browne
Reply to serge montague
One can feel the effects without it affecting you significantly financially. Put another way, knowing about the carbon tax can make one more aware, and thus decide to make better choices. That does not mean it is adversely affecting the pocketbook. See the difference.
serge montague
Reply to Dennis Woodman
If you care about your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and whatever you would call them after 1000yrs it makes sense...............sigh
Dennis Woodman
Reply to Lynette Browne
Never should have been an exemption for some and not others.
serge montague
Reply to Lynette Browne
I see ...the tax is not supposed to nudge people, financially it's supposed to awareness-nudge us. makes sense.sigh
A tax has only one effect on the individual...It costs them more . What is this other "feeling" you are talking about ?
serge montague
Reply to Dennis Woodman
exemptions are allowed when courting Lib vote rich maritimes
Dennis Woodman
Reply to serge montague
So Canada NEEDSa carbon tax when vast majority of countries don’t have one ?
serge montague
Reply to Dennis Woodman
If you could explain that pretzel logic as to how a tax can be insignificant and, at the same time have enough financial clout to be people to avoid it, I could use the help, the local SMEs seem stumped by the question
serge montague
Reply to serge montague
"to be" =for
Dennis Woodman
Reply to serge montague
ItsNOT insignificant. It’s burden.
ken selluk
Reply to Alison Jackson
Who's trying to curb emissions?
ken selluk
Reply to Lynette Browne
You have no options when it comes to eating..
serge montague
Reply to Dennis Woodman
I agree. But the climate SMEs here say it's not a burden for the cost of living , but somehow is a burden for those people with ICE powered cars. They make no sense whatsoever
Don Corey
Reply to Lynette Browne
No, I have no options, other than to stay home and watch the grass grow. Most of us have things to do and see, and it takes a vehicle (which takes gas). Your sales pitch on the ineffective carbon tax just isn't working is it.
Mitch Love
Reply to serge montague
Unless the effects of the CT on the cost of living are drastically understated.
Mitch Love
Reply to Lynette Browne
Also knowing that the carbon tax is a useless tax grab makes one endlessly aware of its intended result.
Lynette Browne
Reply to Don Corey
That is of course your choice. Just a reminder, EV's = zero gas. Fossil vehicles will still be for sale until 2035, then used after that.
Mitch Love
Reply to Lynette Browne
You do have options. Do not vote the cash grabbing liberals next election. Axe the tax!
Lynette Browne
Reply to Mitch Love
Only if you choose to label it that way ;)
Mitch Love
Reply to Lynette Browne
There is no other way to label at and still be honest. Then we are talking about Prime Minister Pinocchio.
Mitch Love
Reply to Lynette Browne
Unless you live in certain, not liberal voting regions.
Don Corey
Reply to Lynette Browne
Did I make any reference to gas prices? Nope.
The exemption was strictly a political move because of the very low polling numbers in Atlantic Canada.
We all the story on this one.
Mitch Love
Reply to Alison Jackson
The carbon tax grab has absolutely nothing to do with curbing emissions, it is a cash grab, nothing more. Even people who do not drive are being hurt by the carbon tax grab.
Mitch Love
Reply to Lynette Browne
Even those who do not drive are paying for the carbon tax grab. It has raised the cost of every single consumer item, including food.
Don Corey
Reply to Dennis Woodman
True. It was done simply to improve a certain individual's polling numbers in Atlantic Canada. That was it, plain and simple.
Don Corey
Reply to serge montague
Nothing she says makes any sense.
Don Corey
Reply to Lynette Browne
Will you buy me a nice new EV, because I'm retired and on a fixed income and certainly can't come remotely close to affording one? And I'm sure not alone.
Don Corey
Reply to David Amos
Thanks; hard to avoid this one.
serge montague
Reply to Mitch Love
Not a chance... SME Lynette insists otherwise ...sigh
serge montague
Reply to Lynette Browne
"Fossil vehicles will still be for sale until 2035, then used after that." you have ZERO evidence for that !
Reply to MR Cain
Reply to MR Cain
Higgs, if you want to do something useful for the people, and try to get elected again, shake this outfit up big time. Sell it even.
Dave Renn
Reply to Allan Marven
Ontario privatized and rates went up bigtime. Alberta is a private owned disaster
Dennis Woodman
Reply to Allan Marven
NB power costs 13.9 cents per kw, Canada ave is 19.2 (2023). Ontario is 14.1, BC is 11.4 , Quebec 7.8 , Alberta 25.8 . No wonder EV sales lag in Alberta ! NW territory is 41.0
David Amos
Reply to Allan Marven
I bet Higgy laughs at that fact that the service charge and the taxes are more than the bill for the power I used last month
David Amos
Monthly Service Charge
$28.27
Charges for electricity used
On the 281 kilowatt-hours you used @ 13.47¢/kWh $37.85
Variance account amount for electricity you used $1.07
Subtotal $67.19
HST (NB Power #11924 6924) $10.08
Amount Due $77.27
From: Chris Duffie <chris.duffie@nbliberal.ca>
Date: Sat, Jul 20, 2024 at 7:44 PM
Subject: Re: Methinks Mr Outhouse will have lots to read this weekend N'esy Pas?
To: David Raymond Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Thursday 18 July 2024
Higgs pledges to cut provincial sales-tax rate if re-elected
PC tax-cut promise pleases business community, disappoints advocates for poor people
Premier and PC Party Leader Blaine Higgs pledged 2 percentage point reduction to HST if re-elected
An election promise by New Brunswick's premier is generating favourable reaction from the business community, while being criticized by poverty-reduction advocates.
A Progressive Conservative proposal to reduce the harmonized sales tax by two percentage points could encourage more retail spending, helping out local businesses, said Jim Cormier, Atlantic director of the Retail Council of Canada.
But reducing the province's HST to 13 per cent would do little to help New Brunswick's poorest residents afford the essentials — many of which already aren't subject to the sales tax, said Peter Jongeneelen, co-chair of ACORN New Brunswick.
"They're not going out and buying new furniture or clothing," Jongeneelen said.
"You know, even if they're buying clothing, it's second-hand. So really, the tax savings is just not … beneficial to those who need it the most."
On Thursday, Premier Blaine Higgs, speaking as leader of the Progressive Conservatives, announced his party would reduce the HST if voted back into power in an election to take place by Oct. 21.
Higgs,
speaking as leader of the Progressive Conservatives, promised Thursday
he would reduce the provincial portion of the harmonized sales tax to
eight per cent. (Shane Fowler/CBC)
Higgs promised, if elected, to reduce the tax by a percentage point as part of the 2025 budget, and by another percentage point in 2026.
Once fully implemented, the tax would cost the province $450 million in annual revenue, while saving the average family about $1,000 a year. Higgs said.
Tax cut good for business, says retail council
Cormier with the retail council said lower taxes are always good for business, particularly now, when inflationary pressures have pushed prices higher.
"As the retail sector, we rely obviously on customers coming in and wanting to spend money in our stores, so if they are paying ... a little bit less in the taxes for those retail goods that they purchase, then hopefully that will encourage them to spend more at the retail locations in their neighbourhoods," Cormier said.
Jim
Cormier, Atlantic director of the Retail Council of Canada, says
businesses would benefit from a reduction to the provincial sales tax
rate in New Brunswick. (Retail Council of Canada)
The harmonized sales tax is a federal-provincial tax created in the late 1990s. It comprises a five per cent federal portion and a 10 per cent provincial portion.
The tax applies to all goods and services sold in the province, with some exceptions, including basic groceries such as milk, bread and vegetables, feminine hygiene products, and prescription drugs.
Everyone benefits, says federation
Also praising the PC pledge was the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, which described it as a tax cut that would benefit everyone.
"I think really the number one thing to say is that this is a tax cut that will impact every New Brunswicker," said Jay Goldberg, interim Atlantic director for the federation, a non-profit organization that advocates lower taxes and greater public accountability.
"Whether you're a senior on fixed income, whether you're a teenager trying to stretch your allowance or anyone in between, this is going to be savings for everyone."
Goldberg noted the provincial tax rate had been eight per cent until it was raised to the current rate of 10 per cent by former government of Liberal Brian Gallant in 2016.
With the Higgs government's effort to reduce the provincial debt during two mandates, the province is in the right shape to offer the tax cut, he said.
"So this is really undoing a tax hike that the last Liberal government implemented," he said.
Working class, people with disabilities left out
While the HST reduction brings down spending costs for everyone, it does so disproportionately, said Jongeneelen, with ACORN.
Higgs touted how significant savings are to be had for families looking to buy a new vehicle, renovate their homes or buy new appliances.
But Jongeneelen said many of New Brunswick's low and moderate-income residents don't earn the income needed to make such purchases, with most of their money going to essentials like rent, food and electricity.
"Two per cent off the taxes really is helping the people who are in the highest tier of society, big corporations, Crown corporations, things like this," Jongeneelen said.
"You know, it does nothing for the people who are, you know, the low, moderate or even medium income that are struggling the most."
Another group of New Brunswickers who will see little of the tax cut's benefits includes people with disabilities, said Shelley Petit, chair of the New Brunswick Coalition of Persons with Disabilities.
She said the most someone on disability assistance gets from the province is $918 a month, or barely enough money for someone to live on.
Rather than reduce the HST, she said she'd like to see improvements bringing the disability benefit up to at least $1,500 per month.
"I think [the tax cut] is something to help out some of the more well-to-do in this province, who really, their biggest concern is, 'Can I take my third vacation this year?'" Petit said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
80 Comments
David Amos
Methinks Mr Outhouse will have lots to read this weekend N'esy Pas?
David Amos
The EUB has been considering arguments about raising NB Power rates 20 percent over 2 years and that is not worth reporting but a possible 2 percent tax reduction is???
Walter Vrbetic
Reply to David Amos
Reported almost 2 weeks ago.
David Amos
Reply to Walter Vrbetic
and what happened?
Walter Vrbetic
Reply to David Amos
Figure it out... try Google.
David Amos
Reply to Walter Vrbetic
I did
David Amos
Content Deactivated
Reply to Walter Vrbetic
I found this in Google
NB Power – Regulatory Oversight
and Integrated Resource Plan
Description and Background
The Province of New Brunswick will subject all NB Power operations to regulatory oversight and review, and require NB Power to present an Integrated Resource Plan every three years and a Financial Forecast annually to the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board (EUB), or as directed by the EUB.
To improve transparency and accountability, an integrated NB Power will be required to demonstrate its costs and revenues across the entire company when requesting rate changes, including rate increases of three percent or less, which are currently exempt from regulatory scrutiny. In addition, NB Power will be required to assess electrical system requirements through an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). This process will utilize the principle of least cost procurement, economic and environmental evaluations, determine appropriate risk values for future electricity requirements and the best options to meet them. The results of this IRP process will be shared with NB Power’s customers and stakeholders by submitting the IRP to the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) within one year of reintegration of the utility, and thereafter at three year intervals or more frequently if directed by the EUB. In addition to submitting the IRP, NB Power will also be required to file a 10 year strategic, financial and capital investment plan with the EUB during its first year as an integrated utility, and will provide annual financial forecasts to be used by the EUB in the rate-setting process.
David Amos
Content Deactivated
Reply to Walter Vrbetic
Two additional items will also bring public and shareholder transparency. Beginning in 2011-12, NB Power is required to issue quarterly financial statements and the utility, as represented by the CEO and the Chairman of the Board, will be required to appear annually before the New Brunswick Legislature’s Crown Corporations Committee.
Key Objectives Served by this Action
Low and Stable Energy Prices – Requiring NB Power to appear before the EUB to defend its costs and projections across the entire organization, as opposed to only the Distribution and Transmission operations as currently required, will ensure the utility’s costs and operations are as efficient and effective as possible while adhering to government policy. In addition, a regularly updated IRP will assist NB Power and the EUB in identifying the most cost effective ways to meet our electricity requirements into the future.
Energy Security – An integrated resource plan will assist NB Power and the EUB to identify future demand trends and asset performance expectations, ensuring that we plan ahead so that there will always be enough electricity supply to meet our demand requirements. The IRP will also identify the optimal mix of domestic supply sources to ensure security of supply, as well as encourage energy efficiency and utility-based demand side management initiatives.
David Amos
Content Deactivated
Reply to Walter Vrbetic
Reliability of the Electrical System – An integrated resource plan allows the utility to take a long view of our electric system to determine future electricity requirements and the best options to meet them. This will allow us to maintain a robust and reliable electric system for all New Brunswickers.
Environmental Responsibility – Requiring NB Power to consider and incorporate principles of environmental stewardship into its long-term planning process via the IRP will ensure that future operations and asset development continue to be carried out in an environmentally sustainable manner.
Effective Regulation – Increased scrutiny by the EUB will ensure NB Power continues to operate in the most efficient and effective manner possible.
David Amos
Content Deactivated
Reply to Walter Vrbetic
FYI I downloaded yesterday's transcript and it was a dilly
From: Abigail J. Herrington <Aherrington@lawsoncreamer.com>
Date: Mon, Jun 24, 2024 at 9:01 PM
Subject: Automatic reply: Court of Appeal File No. 68-23-CA - Judicial Review of Board Decision in Matter 541
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
From: Glenn Zacher <GZacher@stikeman.com>
Date: Mon, Jun 24, 2024 at 8:39 PM
Subject: Automatic reply: Court of Appeal File No. 68-23-CA - Judicial Review of Board Decision in Matter 541
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
I am away at an out of town hearing until Friday, June 28, 2024 and may be delayed in responding. If your matter is urgent, please contact my assistant Sofia at scasinha@stikeman.com or 416 869 6703. Thank you
|
Follow us: LinkedIn / Twitter / stikeman.com |
Stikeman Elliott LLP Barristers & Solicitors 5300 Commerce Court West, 199 Bay Street, Toronto, ON M5L 1B9 Canada This email is confidential and may contain privileged information. If you are not an intended recipient, please delete this email and notify us immediately. Any unauthorized use or disclosure is prohibited. |
|
From: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jun 24, 2024 at 8:59 PM
Subject: Fwd: Court of Appeal File No. 68-23-CA - Judicial Review of Board Decision in Matter 541
To: <jdoughart@gmail.com>, Mitchell, Kathleen <Kathleen.Mitchell@nbeub.ca>, Aherrington@lawsoncreamer.com <Aherrington@lawsoncreamer.com>, Melissa Curran <Melissa.Curran@nbeub.ca>, Young, Dave <Dave.Young@nbeub.ca>, Dickie, Michael <Michael.Dickie@nbeub.ca>, Veronique Otis <Veronique.Otis@nbeub.ca>, Colwell, Susan <Susan.Colwell@nbeub.ca>, Chiasson, Alain (OAG/CPG) <Alain.Chiasson2@gnb.ca>, Hoyt, Len <len.hoyt@mcinnescooper.com>, rburgoyne@coxandpalmer.com <rburgoyne@coxandpalmer.com>, louis-philippe.gauthier@cfib.ca <louis-philippe.gauthier@cfib.ca>, frederic.gionet@cfib.ca <frederic.gionet@cfib.ca>, Sollows, David (ERD/DER) <david.sollows@gnb.ca>, Brandy Gellner <Brandy.Gellner@libertyutilities.com>, Volpé, Gilles <Gilles.volpe@libertyutilities.com>, Lavigne, David <dave.lavigne@libertyutilities.com>, Gordon, Laura <LGordon@nbpower.com>, Waycott, Stephen <SWaycott@nbpower.com>
Cc: Clark, Lori <lclark@nbpower.com>
From: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
Date: Mon, Jun 24, 2024 at 8:29 PM
Subject: Fwd: Court of Appeal File No. 68-23-CA - Judicial Review of Board Decision in Matter 541
To: Susan.Holt <Susan.Holt@gnb.ca>, robert.mckee <robert.mckee@gnb.ca>, hugh.flemming <hugh.flemming@gnb.ca>, <Steve.Outhouse@gnb.ca>, blaine.higgs <blaine.higgs@gnb.ca>, Ross.Wetmore <Ross.Wetmore@gnb.ca>, rob.moore <rob.moore@parl.gc.ca>, John.Williamson <John.Williamson@parl.gc.ca>, jake.stewart <jake.stewart@parl.gc.ca>, andrea.anderson-mason <andrea.anderson-mason@gnb.ca>
Cc: Robert. Jones <Robert.Jones@cbc.ca>, John Furey <JohnFurey@fureylegal.com>, Glenn Zacher (gzacher@stikeman.com) <gzacher@stikeman.com>
From: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
Date: Fri, Jul 7, 2023 at 11:34 AM
Subject: Fwd: Court of Appeal File No. 68-23-CA - Judicial Review of Board Decision in Matter 541
To: Ross.Wetmore <Ross.Wetmore@gnb.ca>, rob.moore <rob.moore@parl.gc.ca>, John.Williamson <John.Williamson@parl.gc.ca>, jake.stewart <jake.stewart@parl.gc.ca>, andrea.anderson-mason <andrea.anderson-mason@gnb.ca>
Cc: Robert. Jones <Robert.Jones@cbc.ca>
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Furey <JohnFurey@fureylegal.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2023 16:03:36 +0000
Subject: Court of Appeal File No. 68-23-CA - Judicial Review of Board
Decision in Matter 541
To: "Mitchell, Kathleen" <Kathleen.Mitchell@nbeub.ca>,
"Aherrington@lawsoncreamer.com
Melissa Curran <Melissa.Curran@nbeub.ca>, "Young, Dave"
<Dave.Young@nbeub.ca>, "Michael.Dickie@nbeub.ca"
<Michael.Dickie@nbeub.ca>, Veronique Otis <Veronique.Otis@nbeub.ca>,
"Colwell, Susan" <Susan.Colwell@nbeub.ca>, "Chiasson, Alain (OAG/CPG)"
<Alain.Chiasson2@gnb.ca>, "Hoyt, Len" <len.hoyt@mcinnescooper.com>,
"Glenn Zacher (gzacher@stikeman.com)" <GZacher@stikeman.com>,
"rburgoyne@coxandpalmer.com" <rburgoyne@coxandpalmer.com>,
"louis-philippe.gauthier@cfib.
"frederic.gionet@cfib.ca" <frederic.gionet@cfib.ca>,
"David.Raymond.Amos333@gmail.
"daly@nbnet.nb.ca" <daly@nbnet.nb.ca>, "david.sollows@gnb.ca"
<david.sollows@gnb.ca>, "Brandy.Gellner@
<Brandy.Gellner@
"Gilles.volpe@
<Gilles.volpe@
"dave.lavigne@
<dave.lavigne@
Cc: "Waycott, Stephen" <SWaycott@nbpower.com>, "Gordon, Laura"
<LGordon@nbpower.com>
Dear Ms. Mitchell, Counsel and Registered Parties,
Please find attached the following documentation:
1. Court Stamped copy of a Notice of Application dated July 4, 2023
(issued by the Registrar of the Court of Appeal on July 5, 2023);
2. Court Stamped copy of the Affidavit of Darren Murphy dated July 4, 2023;
3. Copy of correspondence dated July 5, 2023 from the Deputy
Registrar of the Court of Appeal confirming the hearing date of
October 19, 2023 and the dates for filing of further documentation;
and
4. An Acknowledgement of Receipt (in both Word and pdf format).
I am providing this documentation to the Board, Board staff, counsel
for those parties who had retained counsel, and those parties who have
not previously retained counsel. I recognise that counsel for J.D.
Irving Ltd. And Utilities Municipal have changed since the hearing of
this matter, and will reach out to those counsel directly.
May I ask that each registered party execute and return to me the
Acknowledgement of Receipt that has been enclosed. The form has been
adapted to permit execution by counsel, an authorized representative,
or the party themselves where they are individuals who have intervened
without counsel.
NB Power has not automatically added Registered Interveners in Matter
541 as parties to this Application. The practice in these matters is
not to do so, and to require such interested persons to apply to the
Court of Appeal for status as an intervener in this proceeding. NB
Power will not object to any such motion for status which is brought
to the Court.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me.
Regards,
John
John G. Furey
Barrister & Solicitor
John G. Furey Professional Corporation
265 Berkley Drive
New Maryland, NB
E3C 1B9
Email: JohnFurey@fureylegal.com<
Phone: 506-444-1328
Fax: 506-300-2076
Matter 541
Relating to an application by New Brunswick Power Corporation
pursuant to subsection 103(1) of the Electricity Act for approval of
the Schedule of Rates for the fiscal year commencing April 1st 2023.
Held at the Fredericton Convention Centre, Fredericton, N.B. on
February 13, 2023.
CHAIRPERSON: Ms. Rubin, is there any preliminary issues on behalf of
your client that you wish to -- that we deal with before we start the
first panel?
MS. RUBIN: No, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. And Mr. Hoyt?
MR. HOYT: Nothing, Mr. Chair.
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. Mr. Stoll?
MR. STOLL: Nothing.
CHAIRPERSON: Mr. Williams?
MR. WILLIAMS: Nothing from me, Mr. Chair.
CHAIRPERSON: And Ms. Herrington?
MS. HERRINGTON: No, Mr. Chair, thank you.
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. I am just wondering if Mr. Amos has arrived
or Mr. Daly? All right. So Mr. Furey, if you want to call your first
panel?
MR. FUREY: Thanks you, Mr. Chair. I will ask NB Power’s Panel A to
come forward to be sworn.
PANEL A
MS. LORI CLARK, MR. DARREN MURPHY, MR. BRAD COADY, sworn.
CHAIRPERSON: And I am going to ask Ms. Otis from the Board just to
come and swear the panel members.
So for the record, the three panel members, Ms. Clark, Mr. Murphy and
Mr. Coady have been sworn.
MR. FUREY: Thank you, Mr. Chair.
CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. Whenever you are ready, Mr. Furey.
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. FUREY:
Q. - Ms. Clark, I wonder if you could introduce yourself to the Board, please.
MS. CLARK: Good morning. My name is Lori Clark. I am the President
and CEO of NB Power, and I have testified for this Board many times.
Higgs suggests N.B.’s SMRs may not win race to commercialization
In addressing his government’s $20-million bet on the industry, Higgs says province couldn’t just sit on the sidelines
Premier Blaine Higgs suggests that New Brunswick’s two small modular reactor companies might not be the ones that successfully prevail amid a race to commercialize.
But in addressing his government’s $20-million bet on the industry, Higgs contends that New Brunswick couldn’t just sit on the sidelines and needed to do its part in a global race toward cleaner energy.
That said, it means the province must continue to look at all other options to meet its electricity needs, according to the premier.
In an interview with Brunswick News, Higgs was questioned on the sudden departure of ARC Clean Technology Canada’s president and CEO amid layoffs made by what is one the of two SMR companies enticed to set up in New Brunswick.
It’s a company the Higgs government gave $20 million now three years ago to help develop its prospective technology, after the previous Liberal Gallant government gave it $10 million.
Last October, the federal government also awarded ARC another $7 million.
“I haven’t got any assurances one way or the other on whether they keep going or whether they’re not,” Higgs said. “As far as I’m aware, their program continues.
“The changes they’ve made, we’re seeing that in many different companies.”
He added: “I’ll remain optimistic until I know otherwise, but I don’t want to take away from the fact that we have to be prepared to look at all aspects of technology that is being presented to us.”
Higgs made reference to “some pull back” in the race towards electric car and battery manufacturing as a parallel, where some leaders have emerged.
He then referenced how the race to commercialize small modular nuclear technology now includes companies and countries around the world.
He suggested that the race is still on.
“I don’t rule any of the current ones that we have right now as being out of the game, but are there more players in the game? Yes. And do we need to understand the best one? We certainly do,” Higgs said.
As ARC rationalizes its workforce, some of its competitors are hiring.
American manufacturing company Westinghouse has opened a new engineering hub in Kitchener, Ont., that aims to support both Canadian-based and international nuclear power projects with a new 13,000-square-foot office and plans to hire 100 engineers to staff it by next year.
That’s as a partnership between Ontario Power Generation and GE-Hitachi to build a small modular reactor at Ontario’s Darlington nuclear station is closer to maturity than similar plans in New Brunswick.
At a New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board hearing last month into a recent power rate hike, NB Power vice president Brad Coady testified he doesn’t expect the province-backed SMRs will be ready by an original target date of 2030.
The utility now believes they’ll be ready by 2032 or 2033.
But SMRs are still part of the plan.
“Our integrated resource plan says we need small modular reactors on our system by the early 2030s and we’re still confident that we can have those,” NB Power CEO Lori Clark told reporters at the hearings.
Asked if his government has now wasted $20 million in taxpayer money, Higgs disagreed, instead stating the province’s efforts are part of a larger goal.
“We know a lot of money has been spent to convert to cleaner forms of energy in the world and research and development is a big component of what is the next best thing, and so we can’t just sit by and wait,” Higgs said.
“We have to be participants in developing the technology or working with others to do so.
“Here in New Brunswick, we’re doing our part for the next generation of clean energy, and part of that is research and development. We can’t just stand by and say ‘I hope somebody figures it out.’”
Higgs defends Lepreau, but also vows not to shut coal plant if needed
'We are not going to put ourselves in jeopardy, turn the lights out, because we have a magic 2030 date': Higgs
Premier Blaine Higgs is defending the reliability of Point Lepreau, stating he isn’t worried about its longevity amid its latest problems.
But Higgs is also saying that the province’s only coal-burning plant is not going to shut down by the federal deadline if there are any concerns about the reliability of electricity in New Brunswick.
“We are not going to put ourselves in jeopardy, turn the lights out, because we have a magic 2030 date,” Higgs said in an interview with Brunswick News.
The Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station, which provides about one third of New Brunswick’s electricity, potentially faces a prolonged outage after problems with its generator were recently detected.
That’s after it completed a scheduled 100-day offline retooling.
It has NB Power relying more on its coal-fired plant in Belledune, as well as other parts of its generation fleet.
That’s while the feds have mandated the phase out of coal-fired electricity by 2030.
Question marks surrounding Point Lepreau’s reliability have persisted in the aftermath of a multibillion-dollar refurbishment that was completed in 2012.
According to NB Power’s own documents, among nuclear peers, Lepreau’s performance is consistently near the bottom. While most Candu reactors around the world operate close to 90 per cent of the time, Lepreau’s average over the last five years has been 78 per cent.
Extended and unplanned outages at Lepreau and Bayside generating stations cost the utility $295 million in fiscal 2022-23.
Meanwhile, a New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board hearing last month into the utility’s double-digit rate hike request revealed that Lepreau has suffered breakdowns averaging over 19 days per year over a five-year period.
And the utility is now budgeting for 29 days of breakdowns at Lepreau per year.
But Higgs said that work to keep Lepreau online longer is working.
“In the last six months (ahead of a scheduled shut down), we have seen Point Lepreau operate better than it has for many, many months,” he said.
The premier pointed to a three-year, $2-million contract NB Power signed with Ontario Power Generation that has three employees from the Ontario utility working at Lepreau helping to improve performance.
The utility has also committed to more proactive maintenance.
NB Power did say earlier this year that Lepreau was on track to operate at 88 per cent capacity in the fiscal year that ended in March.
A 2023-24 annual report is yet to be released.
“I’m pretty optimistic on how well Point Lepreau can run,” Higgs said.
But the premier then said that the reliability of electricity is a concern regardless.
Higgs pointed to a cold snap last February where New Brunswick was running its entire generation fleet, except for wind power tied into the grid as it was too cold for them to operate.
It saw the province reach an all-time winter peak demand of just over 3,400 MW.
“As we look for cleaner, greener energy, we always have to retain reliability,” Higgs said. “People expect that.
“While we’re targeting 2030, we’re not going to be shutting the lights off to make that happen.”
The federal Liberals have been unwavering about that date.
Earlier this year, the Trudeau government announced it would spend $2 million towards a feasibility study aimed at converting the Belledune coal-fired power plant to “sustainably-sourced biomass.”
Those efforts continue, Higgs said, believing that could also provide a stable source of power.
That said, the premier said that affordability remains a factor.
Asked if he’s talked with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre about energy policy under a prospective Conservative federal government, Higgs said “a lot would change.”
Belledune, the Coleson Cove Generating Station, part of the utility’s fleet to be used as a winter-peaking station fuelled primarily with heavy fuel oil, and Bayside, a natural gas burning plant, are all subject to federal carbon tax, increasing the cost of electricity on the utility.
Higgs didn’t say whether Poilievre would do away with the 2030 coal phase out date, but instead noted that small modular reactor technology likely won’t be ready in that time frame to offer another option.
A request to clarify the federal party’s position was not immediately returned.
The premier said, regardless of the government in Ottawa, he won’t make changes that could impact reliability.
“Will we be ready to shut current assets down by 2030? I think it’s probably unlikely,” Higgs said.
NB Power faces record summer demand for electricity amid new problems
With Point Lepreau facing prolonged outage, utility says it’s relying more on coal-fired Belledune, other parts of generation fleet
NB Power says it’s facing record demand for power this summer, just as one of its cheapest sources of electricity remains down with new issues.
With the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station facing a prolonged outage, the utility says it’s relying more on its coal-fired plant in Belledune, as well as other parts of its generation fleet.
“NB Power is forecasting record peak demand for our summer season,” said NB Power spokesperson Dominique Couture.
The reason is several fold.
The utility is citing record immigration that has swelled the province’s population, and in turn the number of users, but also a push to see New Brunswickers switch away from more carbon-intensive ways to heat their home, like heating oil, in favour of electric heat pumps – which also provide air conditioning.
That’s amid heat waves that have already hit this summer.
“New Brunswick’s population continues to grow at rates we have not seen in decades, and based on this growth and the increased penetration of heat pumps,” Couture said.
The utility has historically needed roughly 1,500 megawatts to meet the needs of customers on a typical summer morning.
It hit a summer peak load of 1,582 MW in 2021, according to the utility.
That peak grew to 1,719 MW in 2022 and 1,739 MW in 2023.
But just last month, NB Power hit a record peak summer demand of 1,760 MW during a heat wave that set temperature records across New Brunswick. It was the first of the hot weather this year.
The demand is nowhere near the province’s all-time winter peak demand of just over 3,400 MW last year.
But the summer difference is enough to prompt the utility to switch on generating capacity it typically wouldn’t this time of year.
And that’s as Lepreau, which provides about one third of New Brunswick’s electricity, potentially faces a prolonged outage after problems with its generator were detected.
“To reliably serve customer demand while the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station is undergoing its maintenance outage, we are optimizing our generation fleet by relying on other units, including Belledune, Bayside, Coleson Cove and Mactaquac, which is performing well due to high flows over the past several weeks,” Couture said.
“We are also utilizing interconnections with neighboring provinces and the U.S. whenever it is economically appropriate.”
The added cost of that is unclear.
NB Power’s latest annual report makes it clear that the “effective operation of Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station is essential for NB Power’s positive financial performance.
“When nuclear generation is below planned levels, other more expensive fuels are used, increasing the cost of generation or purchased power costs,” reads the report.
Extended and unplanned outages at Point Lepreau and Bayside generating stations cost the utility $295 million last year.
That was as Lepreau operated at 56.6 per cent capacity.
In the current year, it has already undergone a 100-day planned outage that could get extended amid new problems.
Without Lepreau, the demand for capacity also sees NB Power rely on larger emitting sources of generation.
Federal rules call for the use of coal at Belledune to be phased out by 2030.
The Coleson Cove Generating Station, part of the utility’s fleet to be used as a winter-peaking station, is fuelled primarily with heavy fuel oil.
Meanwhile, Bayside is a natural gas burning plant.
All three stations are subject to the federal carbon tax, increasing the cost of electricity on the utility.
NB Power maintains the added costs are ongoing.
“The cost of replacement power is subject to fluctuations in market conditions and output of our generation fleet,” Couture said. “These costs are monitored and will be reported in our quarterly financial reports.”
NB Power's problem isn't about price, it's about public trust: prof
Despite the utility's claim that it needs to refurbish big power plants to ensure enough baseload power, academic says public is unconvinced
NB Power says it has a peak load problem.
The public utility is worried what will happen if electrical demand keeps going up – thanks to the province’s newfound population growth and the increasing popularity of e-vehicles – and it suddenly runs out of power to serve everyone, just when they need electricity the most.
The peak power demands in the province have always been in January and February, when thermometers dip. Three out of every four New Brunswick households primarily use electricity to heat their homes, and nine of 10 use electric hot water heaters, according to NB Power’s filings with the Energy and Utilities Board.
Despite the utility’s efforts to convince people to use heat pumps to save energy, the devices are the least efficient when it’s coldest, rendering them hardly more efficient than the traditional, wasteful electric baseboard heaters that are so commonplace.
It was these issues that Darren Clark, a senior manager of integrated resource planning at NB Power, was trying to spell out Wednesday to Glenn Zacher, a lawyer working for the big timber firm J.D. Irving, Limited.
“During the shoulder seasons, heat pumps are two to three times more efficient,” Clark said, quickly adding that during the coldest periods, “they’re almost the same as baseboard heaters.”
Like many ratepayers, JDI isn’t pleased about having to pay lots more for power, given that its businesses – everything from toilet paper to french fries – are so energy intensive.
For several days this summer, interveners representing various interests have been questioning NB Power officials at the rate hearings to decide if the public utility should be allowed to jack up electricity prices for households and businesses close to 20 per cent over the next two years.
Wednesday was no different, with three different lawyers asking questions on everything from NB Power’s planned, $113-million revamp of its software systems over the next several years to its decision to sell its old and new headquarters in Fredericton, leasing back the newer building.
Lepreau is a black hole and they just keep throwing money down it. Mothball it and buy the power from somewhere else.
Mario Levesque
Mario Levesque wonders if it will make a difference.
The political science professor at Mount Allison University says the regulatory process is important and drilling down on the details is crucial to coming up with fair prices.
But he thinks NB Power’s biggest problem is with the public, wary after so many boondoggles.
“For the public, they want competitive rates with their neighbours, and even with the increase, that’s not the issue at hand,” he said. “For the public, they don’t have any trust in NB Power. That’s the bigger issue.”
Levesque itemized various NB Power projects that were much more expensive than they had to be, and in some cases, completely unnecessary.
In 1968, NB Power commissioned the Mactaquac Generating Station near Fredericton, but in the construction of the concrete spillway and gates, used inferior rocks that undergo a chemical reaction and expand over time. It was a phenomenon known to engineers for decades. Part of the reason NB Power wants a $7.2-billion retrofit is to help fix that problem only halfway through the plant’s design life.
There was the Orimulsion fiasco, when NB Power converted Coleson Cove in Saint John in 2002 to burn the cheap Venezuelan fuel without having a signed contract, only to discover that the dictatorship in power in the South American country refused to come good. The project cost ratepayers hundreds of millions.
More recently, there was the Joi Scientific debacle. The utility dumped $6.5 million into the Florida company, which claimed it had technology to generate hydrogen gas from seawater to generate electricity on demand.
The project fizzled, and ratepayers’ money went down the drain.
But NB Power’s more recent financial troubles have been caused by the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station, first opened in 1983, near the Port City.
NB Power refurbished the nuclear side of the plant in 2012, at a cost of $2.5 billion, a project that was over budget by $1 billion and took 37 months longer to complete than expected. But the utility didn’t do similar work to other important parts of the plant, on the conventional side, leading to frequent breakdowns.
According to NB Power’s own documents, among nuclear peers, Lepreau’s performance is consistently near the bottom.
“If they can’t do Lepreau right, what are they going to do with Mactaquac?” Levesque said. “It’s one blunder after another. They have a really poor track record overall on being on time, on budget.”
NB Power insists it is being more careful with both plants now, taking the time to get their rehabilitations right and investing enough money to ensure they perform well.
It also keeps coming back to the need for baseload power – the kind of energy that 1,200 megawatts the two plants provide, combined, enough to serve over 200,000 households. During the coldest moments, Lepreau in particular is badly needed, they say.
Levesque isn’t convinced. He points to the Netherlands, which was forced to quickly come up with energy solutions after Russia invaded Ukraine and its natural gas supply was threatened.
One in three homes in the European country now have rooftop solar panels, and commercial factories, with vast, flat roofs, are also cashing in on the trend.
“Lepreau is a black hole and they just keep throwing money down it. Mothball it and buy the power from somewhere else,” the professor grumbled. “The Netherlands are taking advantage of all that free roof space. And they actually have solar panels on lakes, floating on the water. That’s innovative, but we’re stuck in an old economy here.”
Point Lepreau has a generator 'issue,' says NB Power
Utility doesn't know how long it will take to fix
There’s a problem with the generator at the Point Lepreau nuclear power plant, and NB Power says it doesn’t know how long it will take to fix, or how much it will cost.
The aging facility provides about one third of New Brunswick’s electricity, but has been plagued with problems in the last few years.
“We are currently on day 94 of the planned 100-day outage at the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station,” NB Power spokesperson Dominique Couture said in an email to Brunswick News.
“After successfully completing planned maintenance work for the spring 2024 outage, an issue was identified in the generator, which is on the conventional, non-nuclear side of the station, as it was being returned to service.
“The team, along with a number of industry equipment experts, are currently troubleshooting the problem. After investigation and troubleshooting is complete, we will have a better understanding of the impact on the outage schedule and budget.
“It is important to note that there are no health or safety concerns related to this delay.
“During the outage, the team accomplished a great deal, including replacing key equipment to enhance the reliability of the Station, safely completing over 25,000 tasks to ensure improved performance moving forward.”
In an April 5 press release announcing the 100-day shutdown, NB Power said its “unwavering commitment to reliable generation serves as the cornerstone of our efforts to ensure energy security for New Brunswick.”
“These maintenance outages are vital to continue safe, reliable and low-emitting electricity generation that meets the needs of our customers. The timing for the maintenance is chosen to align with New Brunswick’s heating season needs,” the release read.
“Activities will include inspections and the installation of upgraded equipment on both the nuclear and conventional sides of the Station, benefiting its long-term reliability. Post-maintenance testing will precede a seamless return to full operation.”
At that time, Couture told Brunswick News that it would cost $86 million to replace the energy lost during the shutdown. And in terms of capital spending, Couture said, the job would set the utility back $137 million, spread out over two years, for a total of $223 million.
News of the shutdown possibly needing to be extended comes as the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) considers NB Power’s request for the highest rate hikes for its customers in generations. It is seeking increases of 23 per cent for residential and big industrial customers over the next two years, slightly less for small and medium-sized businesses.
Appearing before the EUB, NB Power CEO Lori Clark argued that breakdowns at Point Lepreau were one of the main reasons her organization couldn’t pay down debt, a situation it hopes to address by investing more in annual maintenance and repairs.
Every time the plant has an unscheduled outage, the utility is forced to pay for expensive power from out of province or run other generators, otherwise people would experience brown-outs or rolling blackouts, she said.
And during the pandemic, NB Power decided to freeze electrical rates to help its customers cope. “In hindsight, I don’t think it was the right thing to do,” Clark said. “But at the time, it was the right thing to do.“
NB Power refurbished the nuclear side of the plant in 2012, at a cost of $2.5 billion, a project that was over budget by $1 billion and took 37 months longer to complete than expected. But NB Power didn’t do similar work to other important parts of the plant, leading to frequent breakdowns.
While most Candu reactors around the world operate close to 90 per cent of the time, Lepreau’s average over the last five years has been 78 per cent. That ends up costing ratepayers tens of millions in replacement power and repairs.
– With files from John Chilibeck
N.B. Power seeking to split 19.4% rate increase evenly over 2 years
Energy and Utilities Board resumes power-rate hearings this week
N.B. Power is asking for permission to split its proposed 19.4 per cent rate increase equally over two years through a deferral account.
The utility says if the request isn't approved, customers would see an increase of 11.15 per cent in 2024-2025 and 5.59 per cent the year after.
The New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board is holding hearings to determine whether N.B. Power should be allowed to raise its electricity rates by nearly 20 per cent over two years. It's also hearing testimony about how that rate increase should be rolled out.
The utility previously said it's raising rates to keep up with its $5.4 billion debt load. It's also spending billions on major infrastructure projects, including to refurbish the Mactaquac Dam.
On Monday, consultant John Todd said spreading the increase equally over two years maintains rate stability. He said the goal is partly to avoid "rate shock" that would be caused by an 11 per cent increase in one year.
Abigail Herrington, the lawyer representing the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board, asked Todd whether he would endorse a plan for a more gradual increase spread out over five years.
Todd said there is too much uncertainty to delay the increase that far in the future.
"The further out you push it, the more challenges could arise in the meantime, put it that way," he said. "You might get lucky but you might not."
No aid for low-income households
The board previously heard evidence about how electricity aid programs, like the rebates for people with low income in Ontario, are not something N.B. Power is allowed to provide in New Brunswick. The board heard that those restrictions do not apply to industrial customers.
N.B. Power previously outlined plans to spend $26.3 million over the next two years to help pulp-and-paper mills with their electricity costs.
Shelley Petit, speaking on behalf of the New Brunswick Coalition of Persons with Disabilities, said the increased rate could result in marginalized people getting disconnected because they're unable to pay their bill.
"I know that for my members, that $25 is going to mean disconnect. They can't afford their power bills now. They're going without food. They're going without medications," she said.
Todd said policies need to be implemented to address that issue but it isn't addressed in his report.
"There's a lot of material and practices elsewhere that you could build on, and this is something that's in collaboration discussion with New Brunswick Power, the government ... policy changes are always possible," he said.
N.B. Power was given permission by the utilities board to begin charging an increase of 9.25 per cent on April 1, but it will have to rebate a portion of what it has collected if the amount is found to be too high.
The utility previously said it needs to earn more than $1 billion in profit over five years to meet 2029 financial targets set by the Blaine Higgs government.
The hearings are expected to take 16 sitting days and they're scheduled to wrap up in August.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Editorial: Perceived conflict for ex-energy minister
There’s something amiss about former Tory cabinet member Mike Holland taking on a high-level sales gig with the company formerly known as SNC-Lavalin – immediately after leaving office as the provincial energy minister.
His appointment with the newly renamed AtkinsRéalis – a major player in nuclear power – creates the perception of conflict.
To start, some caveats: On the whole, Holland did a fine job in his ministerial role. And we appreciate that people need to earn a living after politics. Private sector work is certainly preferable for taxpayers compared to “golden handshakes,” allowing outgoing politicians and top aides to get paid out while sitting around doing nothing.
Still, it’s worth asking: why Holland? After all, he did not come to provincial politics as a nuclear expert. The experience the company has pointed to in support of his recruitment was attained as a public official.
And even then, we’re dubious of what he’s being hired to do. Provincial conflict-of-interest laws prevent a former official from lobbying the government within a year of leaving office. Yet with a provincial election coming no later than the fall, and much of the political machinery slowing down, that one-year period will very soon be over.
New Brunswick is also one of only two provinces that operate nuclear power plants as part of their power grids. And both the provincial government and NB Power have enthusiastically included small modular reactors in their plans – another space this company is playing in.
We worry Holland is being retained to peddle influence he may continue to have among a re-elected Higgs government – on behalf of a Quebec company that may compete with New Brunswick firms receiving public funding.
Whatever Mr. Holland’s intentions, cases like this reinforce negative perceptions of our elected officials – smoothly sliding into private roles that leverage their credentials of power, and with unclear outcomes for the public interest.
Second review of ARC’s SMR not complete, despite layoffs
That’s after ARC Clean Technology Canada said it downsized with that review now over
A second design review of a New Brunswick-based company’s proposed small modular nuclear reactor is not yet complete, according to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.
That’s after ARC Clean Technology Canada said it downsized with that review now over.
Brunswick News reported last month that ARC, one of two companies pursuing SMR technology in the province, had handed out layoff notices to some of its employees, citing its latest design phase coming to an end.
That’s as its CEO also departed.
But the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission says it’s “months” away from completing its review, and may need more information from the company.
“We have received all of ARC’s major submissions as part of the vendor design review process and our experts are carefully reviewing them,” commission spokesperson Braeson Holland told Brunswick News.
“It is possible that staff will have additional questions for the vendor. In that case, additional information may be requested, and the company will be expected to provide it for the vendor design review to proceed.
“Provided that any additional information requested is submitted in a timely manner and that the company remains in compliance with its service agreement with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, we anticipate that the review will be complete within several months.”
A vendor design review is an optional service that the commission provides for the assessment of a vendor’s reactor design.
The objective is to verify, at a high level, that Canadian nuclear regulatory requirements and expectations, as well as Canadian codes and standards, will be met.
The company did complete a Phase 1 review of its ARC-100 sodium-cooled fast reactor in October 2019.
An executive summary of that review, made public by the commission, noted that there were requests for additional information, as well as technical discussions through letters, emails, meetings and teleconferences, after an initial submission.
The result of that first review found that “additional work is required by ARC” to address findings raised in the review, specifically around the reactor’s management system.
It then lists a series of technical concerns, but concludes that “these issues are foreseen to be resolvable.”
A Phase 2 design review, which ARC is undergoing right now, goes into further detail, and focuses on identifying fundamental barriers to licensing for a new design in Canada, according to the commission.
That review started in February 2022, and was expected to be completed in January of this year.
It’s unclear why it has yet to be completed.
At a New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board hearing last month into a recent power rate hike, NB Power vice president Brad Coady testified he doesn’t expect SMRs will be ready by an original target date of 2030.
The utility now believes they’ll be ready by 2032 or 2033.
Coady said that’s, in part, due to regulatory hurdles.
“Simply put, where we are in the license-to-prepare-site application and the environmental impact assessment, it is unlikely that we can construct and operate a small modular reactor by 2030,” he said.
ARC has maintained that its Phase 2 review is nearing its end.
“Following the substantial conclusion of our work to complete Phase 2 of the vendor design review process with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, ARC Clean Technology is re-aligning personnel and resources to strengthen our strategic partnerships and rationalize operations to best prepare for the next phase of our deployment,” the company said in a statement.
“In parallel, Bill Labbe, ARC Clean Technology Canada President and CEO since 2021, has announced that he will transition to a new opportunity in coming months.”
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission stated that the results of its review will be made public when completed.
Editorial: Utility must find cost savings
The provincial power utility must look at ways to cut costs, and not just push for higher rates and longer debt repayment schedules.
NB Power is applying for a big electricity price increase. At issue are not just the standard inflationary pressures of the moment, but a generational shift in energy patterns. Much of the world, including Canada, is aiming to reduce fossil fuel use. More energy consumption will move to non-emitting electricity.
That means that utilities are all under pressure to generate more power, more reliably, in a more environmentally sound way.
This is challenging enough.
For NB Power, there is an even deeper problem: substantial debt on the order of $5 billion, and a looming multibillion-dollar refurbishment of its biggest hydroelectric generation station at Mactaquac.
In discussions at the hearings on the proposed rate hike, debate has focused on the impact of NB Power’s finances on the provincial credit rating. The Province of New Brunswick is, after all, the entity that owns NB Power and will be left holding the bag if NB Power can’t pay down its debt. The province has directed the utility to pay down a billion dollars of its debt by 2029. NB Power’s CEO suggests that a longer payback period would reduce the pressure on rates. There is, however, another path: reducing the utility’s expenses.
Crown corporations can be notoriously resistant to the idea that they can reduce their costs without reducing their output. But such things are not just possible, they are essential to ensure value for taxpayers and ratepayers alike.
To receive the requested hike to rates, NB Power must show it can’t cut costs. We, however, believe there is more room for savings on this front.
Belledune likely to survive the end of coal in 2030, N.B. Power hearing told
Utility says a switch to local wood from imported coal likely to save critical facility
Testimony at N.B. Power's rate hearing suggests the utility believes it will be able to economically repurpose the Belledune coal fired generating station to burn wood pellets and avoid its closure in 2030 under federal carbon policies.
On Thursday, Larry Kennedy, a U.S. based expert in utility depreciation issues, testified there is no need to shorten Belledune's expected useful life for accounting purposes from 2040 to 2030 because it is likely it will be refitted to burn wood, which carries no carbon costs.
"The company is very comfortable with where they are that there's a high probability that plant will have a life beyond 2030," said Kennedy.
Belledune is a critical linchpin in the economy of northeastern New Brunswick. It is an important employer, a buyer of local goods and services and a major source of local tax revenue.
N.B.
Power's Brad Coady says the utility is moving closer to a decision that
could see the Belledune generating station burn local wood, rather
than imported coal, to generate electricity (John Collicott/CBC News)
This year the generating station is contributing $2.5 million in property taxes to the Village of Belledune, half of the community's entire municipal budget.
Fear the plant might have to be shuttered has hung over the region since Canada announced in 2018 a series of climate policies that include plans to end power generation from coal by 2030.
Prior to Kennedy's testimony, N.B. Power's vice-president of strategic partnerships and business development gave a lengthy update about plans for Belledune.
Brad Coady said the issue is still being evaluated, but converting Belledune to burn wood pellets has emerged as a leading option, largely because it allows the existing plant and infrastructure to continue in service.
He said this is cheaper than building a new power plant from scratch.
Pellets are more expensive as a fuel than coal alone, but cheaper than the combination of coal and carbon taxes, and the switch would make sense even if coal was not being banned.
Piles
of imported coal used as a fuel to generate electricity at Belledune
since the 1980s will be gone by 2030. N.B. Power now piles piles of wood
pellets are a viable replacement. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
"The carbon tax will likely make this fuel conversion a cheaper alternative regardless," Coady said.
N.B. Power has more tests scheduled for this year and is studying the performance of different kinds of pellets and in different combinations to see what is most efficient. So far, the utility said, burning wood at Belledune is beating all potential alternative solutions.
"We still have to conclude the work on the business case and the investment rationale document to support that decision, but all indications are to date that it is a leading candidate for the alternative to coal," Coady told New Brunswick public intervener Alain Chiasson.
Belledune's large combustion chambers require limited modifications to
burn wood pellets, according to N.B. Power evaluations. (Jacques
Poitras/CBC News file photo)
Pellets emit greenhouse gases when burned like coal but the fuel is not subject to carbon taxes because growing new trees reabsorbs carbon from the atmosphere.
Some environmentalists question how much of an improvement the fuel is, but for the moment it is treated favourably by Canadian climate regulations.
New Brunswick does have a number of wood pellet producers, but Coady said volumes and specifications required by Belledune could result in a significant expansion in that local industry.
For test burns last year, N.B. Power had to import suitable pellets from Quebec and Sweden.
"Our primary objective would be to induce the creation of this industry within New Brunswick," Coady said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Time for N.B. Power to shop around for nuclear options, ex-CEO says
Former head of ARC Clean Energy says successor’s departure is ‘confusing,’ may indicate funding shortfall
A former CEO of Arc Clean Energy Canada says it's time N.B. Power looks at other options for small modular nuclear reactors beyond two companies looking to build them in New Brunswick.
Norm Sawyer says indications of trouble at ARC, including the departure of its most recent CEO, are "a bit confusing. It doesn't seem to match up with what they're doing."
But it indicates that N.B. Power should consider shopping around to get more nuclear generation on the provincial grid by 2030 or 2035, he told CBC News.
"I would say yes, I think it's maybe time to do that, if indeed 2030 is critical," he said.
"Strategically N.B. Power needs to think this out and say, 'If I need power by this time, what's the highest probability I have if I want nuclear to be ready?' Obviously some technologies will be there a lot quicker than others."
Sawyer left ARC in 2021 and is now an independent consultant to the nuclear industry.
Bill
Labbe has left ARC Clean Energy Canada. ARC says Labbe won't be
replaced as CEO but that the chief operating officer of its U.S. company
will lead the company 'during the next period.' (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
He was responding to news that his successor as CEO, Bill Labbe, has left the company.
ARC is "re-aligning personnel and resources to strengthen our strategic partnerships and rationalize operations to best prepare for the next phase of our deployment," the company said in a statement this week.
Last year Labbe told a legislative committee that ARC's 100-megawatt small modular nuclear reactor would be ready by 2030.
But at Energy and Utility Board hearings this week, the Crown corporation's vice-president of business development and strategic partnerships, Brad Coady, said SMRs "probably won't be ready by 2030."
The Higgs government gave ARC $20 million in 2021 to help it develop its reactor, and the previous Liberal government gave it $10 million.
Spokesperson Laverne Stewart said the government wasn't told of Labbe's departure in advance.
The provincial funding was "contingent on several benchmarks being reached," Stewart said.
"We are aware that the technology is still advancing and understand that restructuring is part of that process."
The province has pitched ARC and another company in Saint John, Moltex Energy, as key to the transition to non-fossil-fuel emitting electricity generation by 2035, the deadline established under the federal government's climate action plan.
N.B. Power's Belledune generating station. (N.B. Power)
The government and N.B. Power are also racing to find replacement electricity for the Belledune generating station, which must stop burning coal by 2030.
Politicians have touted the jobs and economic spin-offs of having two New Brunswick-based SMR developers building reactors.
But Sawyer says the first priority must be to get more generation in place, and it may make sense to look at companies further along and better able to build more units sooner.
"Having that supply chain in place and having the fleet in place, you're going to be a lot better off," he said.
"It's a balance of economic growth versus energy security, and I guess at the end of the day, at one point you just gotta decide to move forward."
Otherwise, he said, "the supply of electricity and the price of electricity is being put at risk here."
In
2022, Bathurst West-Beresford Liberal MLA René Legacy suggested the
utility look at SMR models from outside New Brunswick to meet emissions
deadlines. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
Allison Macfarlane, a former chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and a professor at the University of British Columbia, said small light-water reactors being developed for Ontario's Darlington nuclear station are "closer to maturity."
"These are the ones that actually will probably be built first," she said.
Sawyer's comments echo what Liberal MLA René Legacy said in 2022, when he suggested the utility look at SMR models from outside New Brunswick to meet emissions deadlines.
"Obviously we want to do New Brunswick first, but if there are other opportunities out there, explore it," Legacy said Wednesday.
"As much as we want to create that industry, we're going to have a real energy crunch soon. It's coming up on us real fast."
In a statement Wednesday, N.B. Power said it's "in a period of disruptive change that requires it to look at all options" to meet a growing demand for electricity, but did not say whether those options include other SMR developers.
Seven First Nations communities that are part of the North Shore Mi'kmaq Tribal Council are investors in ARC's SMR development.
And the Port of Belledune said in 2022 it would use an ARC reactor to power a proposed hydrogen power export facility as part of its green energy hub project.
ARC said in its statement that Labbe won't be replaced as CEO but that the chief operating officer of ARC's U.S. company, Bob Braun, will lead the company "during the next period."
ARC did not respond to a question about whether anyone else is leaving the company.
The company said it recently completed the second phase of a vendor design review required under the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission's regulatory process — another reason Sawyer questions the timing of ARC's plan to "rationalize operations."
"You would think that if you're planning forward, you would at least maintain what you have, or if there's a project, you would be growing," Sawyer said.
Potential investors may be hesitating because the company must find an alternative source of enriched uranium now that the supplier it was counting on, Russia, is subject to economic sanctions because of its war on Ukraine, he said.
Sawyer emphasized repeatedly that his comments are based on his expertise and experience in the nuclear sector as an independent consultant, not on any inside information about what is happening at ARC. He is not consulting for ARC, he added.
Some kind of additional nuclear generation is essential to New Brunswick's ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, Sawyer said.
"Just because one project may be hitting rough seas doesn't mean all nuclear is bad."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
NB Power seeks approval for big spending after money is already spent
Public utility says catastrophic failure at Bayside gas-powered plant in Saint John forced it to make an emergency decision
There is one big oddity to the hearings that will decide if NB Power can raise electricity prices to the highest in generations.
Besides the large rate request, the public utility is also asking permission to spend more than $50 million on emergency turbine replacement for one of its power plants, a job that has already been completed.
The law spells out that NB Power must seek approval from the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board, an independent regulator, if it estimates it will spend more than $50 million on any capital project.
Under the province’s Electricity Act, the board must carefully consider NB Power’s big spending projects and reject them if the evidence shows they will unnecessarily drive up rates for households and businesses.
But the Bayside natural gas plant in Saint John suffered a catastrophic failure on Jan. 24, 2022, and was out of commission for a year.
NB Power used a provision in the law that allows it to immediately embark on such expensive work in the case of an emergency and seek retroactive approval from the board for heavy spending.
NB Power CEO Lori Clark told reporters after testifying at the hearing that NB Power officials initially thought a piece of ice went through the turbine and caused the blades to fail.
“So, something we hadn’t planned and obviously caused a catastrophic failure at the station that we couldn’t have anticipated.”
In NB Power’s filing of evidence to the board, there’s no mention of ice.
Instead, the document about its general rate application states that one of the compressor blades broke off and damaged more than one-third of the other blades in the turbine.
It was due to a manufacturer’s defect.
“From the study work conducted by NB Power, it was believed to be a manufacturing defect (crack) in the blade on the stator row 3 that propagated and failed and sent a part of the blade through the machine causing it to go offline due to automatic protection activation,” the report states. “This resulted in the station being taken out of service for a prolonged period.”
Yet only three years before the catastrophic failure, NB Power boasted in a media release that it had made a great deal by purchasing the plant for $46 million from the private firm Emera. Up until then, NB Power had been buying the power produced by the old, 280-megawatt gas-fired plant on Saint John’s industrialized east side.
“NB Power completed its due diligence by engaging an independent third party to carry out an inspection and the company was impressed with the station’s condition and capabilities,” states the release from March 6, 2019. “Bayside underwent extensive renovations in 2017 which included repairs, and replacement of major turbine components. Major capital projects have restored the combustion turbine to like-new condition.”
The New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board must decide if NB Power
should be allowed to spend more than $50 million on replacing a gas
turbine at its Bayside plant in Saint John – after it already spent the
money. Photo by John Chilibeck/ Brunswick News
NB Power made the purchase after securing a long-term deal for natural gas out west.
In its filing, utility officials said they only had three options: decommission the plant, repair it, or replace the turbine, a project that had been planned for the following year anyway, with the hopes of extending the life of the generating station.
Repair work, it said, would be costly – $47 million for difficult-to-source replacement parts and proper inspections – and quickly ruled out. Decommissioning, it added, was never really an option because of the plant’s importance.
Of New Brunswick’s big thermal plants, it belches out the fewest greenhouse gases, unlike Coleson Cove in Saint John, which relies on heavy oil, and Belledune, which uses the biggest polluter of them all, coal.
And executives at the public utility say Bayside is essential for providing enough baseload power to ensure people’s lights and heat stay on in the cold winter months.
We need to have energy security in New Brunswick. We’ve seen rolling blackouts in other provinces and we certainly don’t want to be there.
Lori Clark
The document refers to the frosty morning of Feb. 4 last year, when a brief but powerful Arctic airmass caused low temperatures and gusty winds, making much of the province feel colder than –40 C.
“NB Power experienced an all-time peak event in response to a population surge and one of the coldest periods experienced in the last 20 years,” the document states. “If Bayside was not operable on that date, and due to the lack of market energy from neighbours, it is likely that NB Power would have had insufficient generation to meet demand if Bayside was not returned to service in time for this peak event.”
When speaking to reporters earlier this week, Clark said NB Power couldn’t leave customers in the cold and dark.
“We need to have energy security in New Brunswick. We’ve seen rolling blackouts in other provinces and we certainly don’t want to be there.”
NB Power says it had originally estimated that replacing the turbine would be $48 million, just under the $50-million threshold for seeking special permission.
In the end, though, the cost was closer to $67 million, due to an unanticipated two-and-half-month delay caused by workers who didn’t show up for the job and parts that didn’t come in on time. NB Power says the big bill was offset by a successful insurance claim and the sale of old parts that dropped the overall pricetag to $52 million.
It’s difficult to know what the three-member board thinks of what happened at Bayside and whether they will grant approval for the big spending after the fact. Their decision isn’t expected for months.
NB Power spokesperson Clayton Beaton wouldn’t speculate what would happen if the board rejected the spending.
“It would be premature to comment on that scenario as we are currently before the Energy and Utilities Board,” he wrote in an email. “NB Power looks forward to receiving the EUB’s decision on this matter.”
Meanwhile, board chairperson Christopher Stewart asked senior NB Power executives twice at the hearing on Tuesday whether in the future, they’d consider seeking pre-approval for projects that are just under $50 million, given that costs can sometimes inflate.
Darren Murphy, NB Power’s chief financial officer, said they could, as a minimum, provide details to the board ahead of time.
“We certainly are happy to provide information,” Murphy said.
Seemingly unsatisfied with that response, for the third time, the chairperson asked the same question.
“Your intention at this point is to only bring those projects which you believe, at the outset, not after the fact like Bayside, will exceed the $50-million threshold?”
To which, Murphy responded: “That’s correct.”
Subsidies to New Brunswick pulp and paper mills increasing to soften electricity rate hikes
N.B. Power says similar help for others, including low-income households, is forbidden
N.B. Power's application for a pair of steep rate hikes is forcing it to pay higher subsidies to pulp and paper mills this year and next year to help the plants cope with the increases.
But the utility says it is not allowed to provide similar relief to any other customers who might be in need, including low-income households.
"Rightly or wrongly, that's my understanding of the Electricity Act," said Brad Coady, N.B. Power's vice-president of strategic partnerships and business development, at the utility's ongoing rate hearing.
N.B. Power has applied to raise rates by an average of 9.25 per cent per year over the next two years, including 9.8 per cent on residential and large industrial customers. That application is being reviewed by the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board.
Under questioning by the Human Development Council's Randy Hatfield, and later by Energy and Utilities Board lawyer Abigail Herrington, Coady said electricity aid programs, like the rebates for people with low incomes that are available in Ontario, are not something N.B. Power is allowed to provide in New Brunswick.
"Paying for subsidies for any one customer has to be funded from collecting revenue from a different customer," said Coady.
"And so we would effectively have raised rates for the non-participating customers in such a program to pay for the participating customers in that program."
N.B.
Power vice-president Brad Coady, far right, told the utility's rate
hearing that it is not allowed to subsidize electricity rates for
customers in need, except for pulp and paper mills. (Pat Richard/CBC)
But restrictions on subsidising power costs do not apply in one case.
In evidence presented at the hearing, N.B. Power has outlined plans to spend $26.3 million over the next two years to help pulp and paper mills with their electricity costs.
It is a 36 per cent increase over the previous two years.
The subsidy, called the Large Industrial Renewable Energy Purchase Program, involves N.B. Power buying renewable electricity generated by the mills at high prices and reselling it back at low prices.
This year the utility is paying mills $120.57 per megawatt hour for their electricity production, most of it generated from burning wood waste. N.B. Power resells it back at $73.13, usually with none of the power ever leaving the mill.
Abigail
Herrington is a lawyer representing the New Brunswick Energy and
Utilities Board. She questioned N.B. Power executives about why they
believe they are unable to offer rate help to low-income customers. (Shane Magee/CBC)
The $47.44 per megawatt hour price difference is a new high and will apply to the buying and selling of an estimated 265,610 megawatt hours of electricity this year.
Hatfield asked how that program is possible if N.B. Power is barred from providing relief to others.
"Is that not a subsidy?" asked Hatfield. "That is ratepayer-funded right? That comes from ratepayer contributions?"
Coady agreed all N.B. Power customers pay for the mill discounts but said the New Brunswick government has enacted regulations that require the subsidies to be paid, and the utility is following those rules.
"It is not New Brunswick Power that's driving the [large industrial renewable energy] purchases," said Coady.
Randy
Hatfield is the executive director of Saint John’s Human Development
Council. He is participating in N.B. Power's rate hearing and pressed
the utility to explain why it offers rate relief to industry, but not
low-income households. (Roger Cosman/CBC)
"We are complying with the terms of the regulation, and qualifying renewable energy is being produced and sold to the utility under that regulation."
N.B. Power has programs to help low-income customers reduce their electricity consumption by helping to finance better insulation, energy-efficient windows and install heat pumps, but those programs are aimed at people who own their own homes.
Hatfield said help for tenants to deal with rising electricity costs, on top of rising rents, is missing and causing hardship.
In Ontario that problem is dealt with by a government program that pays low-income households between $45 and $113 per month in energy rebates, depending on consumption amounts, income levels and the number of people living in a location.
Coady agreed New Brunswick has little help to offer those on low and moderate incomes who are tenants and find two large increases in power rates difficult to absorb.
"Energy poverty is real," said Coady.
"It is incredibly difficult to get to renters. The utility works with the community and with renters to overcome those obstacles and barriers but it is a hard one to overcome.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Credit agencies watch as NB Power seeks highest rates in generations
Questions are raised whether huge debt repayments could be spread out to avoid households and businesses paying far more for electricity
One of the Higgs government’s cardinal concerns has been cited repeatedly in a rate hearing that will decide if NB Power can raise electricity prices the highest in generations.
The provincial government’s excellent credit rating.
Officials at the hearing in Fredericton, such as the public intervener and the legal team for the private timber firm J.D. Irving, Limited, have asked NB Power executives repeatedly why the utility can’t extend the period for paying down $1 billion in debt.
They point out that if debt repayment were spread out over more years, rates for NB Power customers wouldn’t have to go up as high over the short term.
As it stands, the Progressive Conservative government has directed NB Power to pay down a huge portion of its $5-billion debt by 2029.
This is one of the reasons why NB Power wants to raise rates 9.8 per cent this year and another 9.8 per cent next year for households, and even more for big industry.
If granted, they would be the highest hikes in more than 40 years.
The interveners have circled back to an overriding concern of the Tory government – the importance of maintaining good standing with the world’s most important credit rating agencies.
If I were only looking at the customer impacts, I would push it out as long as I can.
Lori Clark
Earlier on at the hearing this week, Glenn Zacher, a lawyer for JDI, drew out of NB Power CEO Lori Clark that she was pleased when the Higgs government suddenly announced last September that it was extending the period for the big debt paydown, giving the utility an extra two years.
NB Power officials had warned the government that without an extension, double-digit rate hikes would have to be foisted on households and businesses.
“In light of your evidence that you were relieved and welcomed the extension from 2027 to 2029 because of the mitigative effect it had on customers, why did you not consider an extension beyond 2029 for the same reason?” Zacher asked.
Clark said she did not consider spreading out the debt repayment further because the government’s directive was only to extend it by two years. Even though hitting the 2029 target is not a requirement by law, she said NB Power couldn’t just ignore government directives.
“If I’m only looking at the impact on customers, I would have pushed it out as far as I could,” the CEO said. “The challenge is we also have to look – I have to look at other things that are impacting the utility.”
Clark said NB Power was preparing to spend big money ensuring people have reliable service, in an era when electrical demand is growing heavily and Ottawa is putting in new, stricter regulations for utilities to curb greenhouse gases and combat global warming.
“We are just running out of time to do that,” she said. “If I were only looking at the customer impacts, I would push it out as long as I can. Unfortunately, I can’t just look at one dimension when you make these types of decisions.”
The big agencies have upgraded New Brunswick’s credit rating since the Higgs government paid down $2 billion in provincial debt and maintained balanced budgets for its entire time in office since 2018, the only Canadian province to do so.
The ratings are now near the top, with Moody’s giving AA, Standard and Poor’s an A plus, and DBRS an A high to New Brunswick, according to their own rating systems. Only the federal government and British Columbia have better ratings. The higher ratings lead to savings on interest payments. The debt reduction has also resulted in $75 million in yearly interest savings for provincial taxpayers.
NB Power officials in their testimony explained that the concern about their organization’s shaky finances is twofold – its heavy debt burden of $5 billion, proportionally, could make the credit rating agencies cast doubt on the provincial government’s finances, since it, as NB Power’s exclusive shareholder, would be responsible for mopping up the red ink mess if the utility failed to meet debt payments.
But NB Power also benefits from the lower rate of borrowing the province receives thanks to its excellent credit rating, interest savings the utility wants before it embarks on massive, multibillion-dollar overhauls of crucial power plants at Point Lepreau, Mactaquac and Belledune.
When Zacher pushed NB Power officials on the effect their organization’s finances could have on the province’s credit rating, Darren Murphy, the utility’s chief financial officer, said the province’s auditor general had already delivered a report citing such concern, all part of the evidence before the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board.
The three-member, quasi-judicial board listening to the proceedings will ultimately decide how high NB Power’s rates should go.
But in sifting through the evidence from previously filed documents, the lawyer showed Murphy that the provincial government’s rating wouldn’t necessarily go down as long as NB Power showed it was making some kind of progress toward paying down debt.
In other words, the 2029 deadline was not make-or-break.
“So, Mr. Murphy, you in fact agree that as long as the debt-to-equity ratio does not worsen and that there is some progress towards it, that that will likely not result in a down grading of the province’s credit rating?”
The executive answered yes.
But Murphy quickly added that he couldn’t state what other variables the rating agencies might consider if they eventually downgrade the province and hurt its favourable borrowing terms.
“So I can’t say it with certainty.”
https://tj.news/new-brunswick/
Premier’s office not given heads up on ARC staffing changes
NB Power is still banking on SMRs to power the province’s electricity grid in the near future
The Higgs government says it wasn’t given a heads up on the sweeping staff changes at one of the province’s two small modular nuclear companies. SUBMITTED
But it says the millions in public dollars spent on ARC Clean Technology Canada had targets built into the funding that the company met.
Meanwhile, NB Power is still banking on SMRs to power the province’s electricity grid in the near future.
Brunswick News reported earlier this week that ARC president and CEO Bill Labbe is no longer with the company, while an unknown number of other employees were given layoff notices.
ARC confirmed in a statement that it was “re-aligning personnel and resources” in a move to “rationalize operations to best prepare for the next phase of our deployment” after it completed a second vendor design review with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, seen as a deeper dive into the company’s technology design and plans.
That decision raises questions on whether a path to commercialization remains on track.
“We are aware that the technology is still advancing and understand that restructuring is part of that process,” Premier Blaine Higgs’s office spokesperson Laverne Stewart said in an email.
The premier’s office didn’t directly answer if it has been given any assurances from ARC on its ability to still bring an SMR to commercialization.
But on Wednesday it added that “to date, ARC has met the milestones they have committed to meet.”
Stewart also said the office was “not made aware of these staffing changes before they were announced.”
She then defended spending on the technology to date.
The Higgs government has spent $20 million towards efforts to commercialize ARC’s technology, with NB Power planning to add an ARC-100 small modular reactor at the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station.
The federal government has also spent $7 million on the company.
“Both Progressive Conservative and Liberal governments in New Brunswick have invested in small modular reactors because making sure we have energy security in our province is important,” Stewart said. “The funding from the government of New Brunswick was delivered in a very structured fashion contingent on several benchmarks being reached.”
A contract with a small modular nuclear reactor company saw the province pay out all of that $20 million by July 1, 2022.
That contract, obtained by Brunswick News, also specifically called on ARC to “notify promptly of any circumstances that could result in significant delays to the development activities.”
And it put in place a project oversight committee consisting of senior officials from the provincial government, NB Power and ARC with broad-ranging powers to intervene in any major step taken along the way.
Former Energy Minister Mike Holland told Brunswick News last month that the committee still remains in place providing updates.
The premier’s office confirmed that on Wednesday.
“The government created a project oversight committee to make sure that the project continues to move forward,” Stewart said. “We’ll continue to have this committee to monitor progress.”
At a New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board hearing on Tuesday into a recent power rate hike, NB Power vice president Brad Coady testified he doesn’t expect SMRs will be ready by an original target date of 2030.
The utility now believes they’ll be ready by 2032 or 2033.
Still, the New Brunswick government has a goal, as stated in its 12-year-energy plan, to add 600 megawatts of SMR energy production to the provincial grid by 2035.
Speaking to reporters at the utility board hearing, NB Power CEO Lori Clark declined to comment on the personnel moves at ARC.
But Clark said the goal remains unchanged.
“Our integrated resource plan says we need small modular reactors on our system by the early 2030s and we’re still confident that we can have those,” she said.
N.B. small modular CEO leaves, company cuts staff
Layoff notices were handed out to other employees, Brunswick News has confirmed
The head of one of New Brunswick’s two small modular nuclear reactor firms is no longer with the company.
That’s as layoff notices were handed out to other employees, Brunswick News has confirmed.
ARC Clean Technology Canada’s president and CEO Bill Labbe “will transition to a new opportunity in coming months,” the company acknowledged on Tuesday.
It’s unclear how many other staff remain.
The company says the changes are being made after ARC completed a second phase of a vendor design review with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, seen as a deeper dive into the company’s technology design and plans.
The commission has yet to publicly confirm the completion of that step.
It was originally expected to be completed last January.
“Following the substantial conclusion of our work to complete Phase 2 of the vendor design review process with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, ARC Clean Technology is re-aligning personnel and resources to strengthen our strategic partnerships and rationalize operations to best prepare for the next phase of our deployment,” reads a statement provided to Brunswick News.
“In parallel, Bill Labbe, ARC Clean Technology Canada President and CEO since 2021, has announced that he will transition to a new opportunity in coming months.”
Labbe has not responded to requests for comment.
The company added that Labbe “continues to be a champion of SMRs in general, and ARC in particular, and will continue to support the company.”
That said, the company doesn’t plan to immediately replace him.
“During the next period, a core team remains in place led by Bob Braun, chief operating officer of ARC Clean Technology (in the United States) with the support of executive leaders Jill Doucett and Lance Clarke in Canada,” the company said.
The company didn’t say whether it changes timelines towards the commercialization of its technology.
There are concerns that it might.
Norm Sawyer, a former head of ARC, told Brunswick News in an interview that small modular firms typically don’t lay off staff after completing a key phase of its work.
“Now that preliminary design is done, major design work is required,” Sawyer said, speaking based on his international expertise in the field, and not with knowledge of ARC’s current inner workings.
“If you were to move forward, significant hires would be required.
“If you’re going on hold and have funding, you would be staying at current staffing levels. If you have no funding, you probably would be de-staffing. The latter would be significant as you lose all your expertise and knowledge.”
He added: “In a technology company, your biggest asset is your human resources.”
At a New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board hearing on Tuesday into a recent power rate hike, NB Power vice president Brad Coady testified he doesn’t expect SMRs will be ready by an original target date of 2030.
The utility now believes they’ll be ready by 2032 or 2033.
The company has faced other hurdles as well.
Brunswick News reported earlier this year that ARC is still in search of a new enriched uranium supplier, after it originally planned to buy from Russia.
That said, former Higgs government Energy Minister Mike Holland told the newspaper that he had been assured there is “a queue for North American enriched uranium and we’re in it,” maintaining the company won’t be shut out.
Firms around the world developing a new generation of small nuclear reactors to help cut carbon emissions have been forced to face a big problem: The only company selling the enriched fuel they need is Russian.
High-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) is an integral component of the company’s ARC-100 sodium-cooled fast reactor, as well as a number of other advanced reactors currently in development attempting to achieve smaller designs.
But it’s not as simple as finding that enriched uranium closer to home.
While Canada mines uranium – there are currently five uranium mines and mills operating in Canada, all located in northern Saskatchewan – it does not have uranium enrichment plants.
ARC established its headquarters in Saint John in October 2018.
The Higgs government then spent $20 million towards efforts to commercialize ARC’s technology, with NB Power planning to add an ARC-100 small modular reactor at the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station.
The federal government has also spent $7 million on the company.
The New Brunswick government has a goal, as stated in its 12-year-energy plan, to add 600 megawatts of SMR energy production to the provincial grid by 2035.
Unexpected surge in N.B. Power revenues draws attention at rate hearing
Utility questioned about whether rate hikes are too high, given unbudgeted windfall
Evidence that N.B. Power may be having a better financial year than expected when it first proposed imposing a pair of large rate increases on customers has participants at its ongoing rate hearing asking whether that offers an opportunity to reduce the amounts.
But the utility is pushing back against that idea, arguing it should be allowed to keep any surge in income over and above what it originally budgeted for.
"We're not recommending any updates to the evidence as a result of changes since the filing," N.B. Power's chief financial officer Darren Murphy told public intervener Alain Chiasson on Tuesday, about the possibility amounts being earned on electricity sales may be better than expected.
If the windfall is to be considered, Murphy has argued, N.B. Power should be allowed to keep the money to shore up its finances, or at least have unbudgeted expenses recalculated to balance out the new revenues.
"If the board decides that updates are required, then we propose it be done in a more comprehensive way," he said.
N.B. Power has applied to raise rates by an average of 9.25 per cent per year over the next two years, including 9.8 per cent on residential and industrial customers.
N.B.
Power's chief financial officer Darren Murphy (left) told the utility's
rate hearing the company should be allowed to keep unbudgeted revenues
that have turned up rather than reduce its rate increases. (Pat Richard/CBC)
However, updated modelling done by N.B. Power, after it submitted its rate application in December, showed margins it is likely to earn on electricity sales have improved by $36.7 million this year and $37.7 million next year.
Multiple parties at the utility's ongoing rate hearings have been asking about those amounts, suggesting they are significant enough to reduce the size of rate increases N.B. Power needs.
"So $37 million a year equates to something over two per cent," noted J.D. Irving lawyer Glenn Zacher about the unbudgeted revenue.
"So that would be a two-per-cent credit against what would otherwise be a 9.25 per cent increase."
Murphy acknowledged that amount of money could potentially be used to reduce a rate increase, but argued against it.
"That is not what we are recommending, but the math is right," said Murphy.
Public
intervener Alain Chiasson is one of at least three participants at N.B.
Power's rate hearing that asked about unexpected revenues the utility
is projected to earn this year and next. (Radio-Canada)
Pressed further on the issue by Ryan Burgoyne, a lawyer for New Brunswick's municipal utilities, Murphy said it is N.B. Power's preference that it be allowed to keep the first $40 million in any unbudgeted revenue that appears.
The utility is already planning for $64 million in net earnings this coming year but Murphy said it would like the number to be allowed to go substantially higher before it is made to divert any new money to reducing its rate increase.
"And just so I understand, that would mean N.B. Power would be looking for net earnings of $100 million to $104 million?" asked Burgoyne.
"That is correct," said Murphy.
N.B. Power has also made the point that unexpected expenses have arisen and if new revenues are going to affect its rate increase, then new costs also should be recalculated.
Trees
pushed into power lines by high winds on Dec. 18, 2023, caused outages
to more than 120,000 N.B. Power customers and had crews working eight
days to fully repair. Costs exceeded $19 million and will add to N.B.
Power's storm-expense budgets for several years, costs that were not
foreseen in its current rate application. (Submitted by N.B. Power)
As an example, the utility pointed to a major winter storm that caused $19.3 million in damage just before Christmas and days after it had already submitted its rate increase request for the next two years.
The utility budgets for storm damage based on multi-year rolling averages and so future costs will be affected by that storm.
Under questioning by Chiasson, Murphy said it is only fair that if unexpected revenues are going to affect N.B. Power's request for higher rates, then so should any surprise increases in its costs.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
N.B. Power executives deny exaggerating nuclear troubles to justify large rate hike
Utility faces pointed questions from about whether its expenses are inflated
N.B.
Power president Lori Clark and chief financial officer Darren Murphy
exit the utility's rate hearing during a break. The two executives said
estimates of expected poor performance at the Point Lepreau nuclear
station this year and next year are realistic given its recent history. (Pat Richard/CBC)N.B. Power executives faced pointed questions early at a New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board hearing that is reviewing plans to raise electricity rates 20 per cent over the next two years, nearly half of which is already being collected from customers.
N.B. Power president Lori Clark and chief financial officer Darren Murphy both denied a suggestion from the forestry company J.D. Irving Ltd., barely an hour into the 16-day hearing, that the utility is exaggerating how poor performance at the Point Lepreau nuclear generating station is likely to be this year, and next year, to justify raising rates more than necessary.
"The performance metrics that N.B. Power is forecasting for Point Lepreau are not in fact improvements. It's a forecast of worse performance," said Glenn Zacher, a Toronto-based energy lawyer representing JDI at the hearing.
Zacher noted that N.B. Power figures show Lepreau suffered breakdowns averaging just over 19 days per year over a five-year period, ending in 2022.
Point
Lepreau has operated below expectations since emerging from a 4½-year
refurbishment in 2012. Estimates by N.B. Power that performance at the
plant will worsen this year and next are being challenged at its rate
hearing. (Shane Fowler/CBC)
That was third worst among 38 peer reactors, and Zacher wanted to know why N.B. Power is now budgeting for 29 days of breakdowns at Lepreau, per year, over the next few years.
That "no doubt puts the station dead last" among all of its peers, said Zacher. He suggested that, combined with additional downtime being set aside for planned maintenance outages, inflates the plant's likely costs and exaggerates the utility's expenses by more than $20 million, both this year and next.
With more optimistic Lepreau budgeting, he suggested that rate increases as high as 9.8 per cent per year over the next two years facing some customers might have been between one and two percentage points lower.
"You're taking a straight historical average of admittedly bad performance and using that to forecast future performance," said Zacher.
Toronto
lawyer Glenn Zacher has been hired by J.D. Irving Ltd. to represent it
at N.B. Power's rate hearing. He asked a series of pointed questions
about whether N.B. Power has been inflating expected costs related to
the Point Lepreau nuclear generating station this year and next year. (Stikeman Elliott LLP)
Murphy said the higher estimate for lost production at Lepreau is no budgeting gimmick but an attempt to be more realistic about the plant's near-term prospects, given its performance to date.
"Although these are increases in forecasted costs, they are actually representative of historical actual costs," said Murphy.
"That's what we've attempted to do in this application — better match up what our experience has been in the last number of years with expected performance over the next few years."
Clark told Zacher that non-nuclear equipment at Lepreau, some of it more than 40 years old, was not upgraded at the time the reactor was refurbished and has been causing most of the problems.
Energy
and Utilities Board member Christopher Stewart is presiding over the
N.B. Power rate hearing. It is expected to last 16 days spread out over
the next two months. (Pat Richard/CBC)
She said there are plans underway to improve Lepreau's performance in relation to its peers but that will take time and money before it shows itself.
"What we're dealing with now is aging equipment in the station," said Clark.
"Significant investment is required in Lepreau."
N.B. Power has applied to raise its rates an average of 9.25 per cent this year and next year, including a pair of 9.8 per cent increases on residential and large industrial customers.
J.D.
Irving Ltd. is N.B. Power's largest private-sector customer. It is
fighting a request by the utility to raise rates an average of 9.25 per
cent this year and next year, including 9.8 per cent on residential and
large industrial customers. (Robert Jones/CBC)
N.B. Power was given permission by the utilities board to begin charging the first increase on April 1 but will have to rebate a portion of what it has collected, if the amount is found to be too high.
Hearings are expected to take 16 sitting days but are spread over the next two months.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Reporter
Robert Jones has been a reporter and producer with CBC New Brunswick since 1990. His investigative reports on petroleum pricing in New Brunswick won several regional and national awards and led to the adoption of price regulation in 2006.
Price tag for overhauling Mactaquac could pass $7 billion
NB Power executive cautions it's only a rough estimate, with no final decision to be made until the beginning of next year
The overhaul of New Brunswick’s most important hydroelectric power plant could cost as much as $7.2 billion – a huge amount tied to the unprecedented electrical rate hikes NB Power is seeking.
The startling figure was released reluctantly by NB Power’s chief financial officer and senior vice president Darren Murphy during a rate hearing in Fredericton on Monday.
NB Power has not provided an updated estimate since it embarked on the Mactaquac Life Achievement project in 2016, when it said it would cost between $2.9 billion and $3.6 billion to extend the life of the generation station and dam near Fredericton another 50 years.
Murphy at first told the three members of the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board he’d rather not give an estimate, citing the fact that tenders have not come in yet for pieces of the work. He said he didn’t have confidence in providing a reliable figure.
But under persistent questioning from Glenn Zacher, a lawyer working for J.D. Irving, Limited, Murphy acknowledged that with inflation and additional scoping work on the project, it would be one and half times to double the original estimate.
That would amount to between $4.4 billion and $7.2 billion.
The board, an independent, quasi-judicial regulator, will ultimately decide whether NB Power has proven its case that it should get its requested rate hikes.
Although most proceedings over the first two days of the hearings at the Fredericton Delta Hotel were dry, polite and formal, at times the atmosphere was tense, including an argument over whether NB Power’s customers would feel rate shock.
NB Power CEO Lori Clark says putting off rate hikes would just worsen the public utility’s financial position, creating a greater burden for customers in years to come. Photo by John Chilibeck/Brunswick News
NB Power’s three most senior executives – Murphy, CEO Lori Clark and Vice President Brad Coady – appeared as the first panel at the hearing to decide whether the utility should be allowed to raise the average electrical rate by 9.25 per cent this year and the same amount next year.
That’s an average hike only. For instance, households are facing a higher increase of 9.8 per cent, plus a catch-up amount for unexpected costs last year of three per cent, for a total increase of 12.8 per cent as of April this year. Add that to next year’s potential hike, and households could be forced to pay 22.6 per cent more.
Randy Hatfield, executive director of the Human Development Council in Saint John, warned the board that New Brunswick has one of the highest energy poverty rates in the country.
In the absence of a low-income energy rebate, we’re going to find more and more, low-income households falling back onto whether they spend money on heat or eat.
Randy Hatfield
Someone who is energy poor spends six per cent or more of their after-tax income on electricity. In New Brunswick’s case, that’s one in every third person in the province, he said.
Raising electricity rates steeply would be hugely difficult for most of these people, he said, given that most of them already have low incomes and use baseboard electrical heat.
NB Power has some programs to help low-income households, but he said they weren’t nearly enough.
“The glaring hole, the missing piece in a comprehensive energy poverty strategy, is a low-income rebate program,” he told reporters afterward. “That’s available in Ontario, in many of the States in the U.S. and throughout Western Europe. And in the absence of a low-income energy rebate, we’re going to find more and more, low-income households falling back onto whether they spend money on heat or eat.”
Big industrial customers face the highest hikes, this year amounting to slightly more than 15 per cent. JDI, which runs paper and sawmills throughout the province, is a huge consumer of electricity.
Clark said NB Power needs the increases to prepare for future load growth, meet climate change goals, deal with intense weather and worse storms, replace badly aging infrastructure, handle inflation, address supply chain problems and fulfill its financial obligations.
As part of NB Power’s efforts to shore up its finances and prepare for the spending at Mactaquac, among other big projects, it is under pressure from the Progressive Conservative government to wipe $1 billion of debt off its books by 2029.
Zacher pointed out that NB Power had failed to reduce any of its debt since formulating a plan in 2013 to reduce it by $1 billion, despite having $426 million in net earnings since that period.
“So ratepayers, for the next five years, are expected to pay the entire freight,” Zacher said.
But Clark said it was unfair to portray the situation that way. The chief executive argued that breakdowns at the Point Lepreau nuclear plant in Saint John were one of the main reasons her organization couldn’t pay down debt, a situation it hopes to address by investing more in annual maintenance and repairs.
Every time the plant has an unscheduled outage, the utility is forced to pay for expensive power from out of province or run other generators, otherwise people would experience brown-outs or rolling blackouts, she said.
And during the pandemic, NB Power decided to freeze electrical rates to help its customers cope.
“In hindsight, I don’t think it was the right thing to do,” Clark said. “But at the time, it was the right thing to do.”
Glenn Zacher, a lawyer from Toronto representing J.D. Irving, Limited, questions whether NB Power has done enough to contain its costs and solve its $5-billion debt burden. Photo by John Chilibeck/Brunswick News
On Tuesday, NB Power lawyer John Fury asked the panel of NB Power executives whether the JDI lawyer was right to say ratepayers would shoulder the entire $1-billion debt repayment burden over the next five years. Coady said no, and estimated that about half the amount, $500 million or so, would likely come from revenues made from export sales of electricity to markets outside of New Brunswick.
Besides, Clark said the utility could not wait any longer to pay down debt because the upgrades were so badly needed at Lepreau and Mactaquac.
The Mactaquac project alone is expected to take 15 years. It’s already behind schedule, with Murphy explaining that experts had advised the utility to take its time and get the project started right, rather than rushing in.
NB Power asked for tenders on replacing the turbines and other work and expects to make a recommendation on how to proceed to its board of directors at the beginning of next year, with a final cabinet decision six to nine months later. That means work could start in the fall of 2025.
The cost for Mactaquac has exploded.
Alain Chiasson
Alain Chiasson, the public intervener who the provincial government hired to represent the public interest, said the Mactaquac project concerned him. He wonders if NB Power will be able to keep rates at an annual average increase of 4.75 per cent for the three years following the latest hikes.
“The cost for Mactaquac has exploded since 2016,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “It will probably be at least $7 billion or if not more. So, yes, I’m concerned about that.”
At one point in Monday’s hearing, JDI’s lawyer recited sworn testimony from Clark at last year’s rate hearing, when NB Power unsuccessfully asked for an 8.9 per cent increase (the board only gave it a little over half the amount, 4.8 per cent).
He recounted that Clark had described rate shock as an increase of 10 per cent or more, what many customers are threatened with this year.
“Any amount when you’re already struggling to pay for groceries and gas will feel like rate shock,” Clark argued, adding that NB Power has a guiding principle of trying to avoid double-digit increases.
Zacher asked if she wouldn’t agree that the proposed increases were extraordinary.
“They are higher than what you’d normally see,” Clark said. “But these are not normal times.”
Large price hikes requested by N.B. Power to get long-delayed review
Utility wants approval to raise rates an average of 19.4 per cent, spread over 2 years
A long-delayed hearing into two large rate increases sought by N.B. Power is scheduled to begin in Fredericton today, although for months the utility has been charging customers some of the higher prices that will be under review.
The New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board is expected to hear evidence sporadically over 16 days starting this week and ending in late August to determine whether N.B. Power should be allowed to raise its electricity rates by nearly 20 per cent over two years.
The utility says it needs the money to slow growth in its $5.4 billion debt load as it begins spending billions more on major infrastructure projects, including a refurbishment of the prematurely aging Mactaquac hydro electric dam outside Fredericton.
Highlighting the gravity of the request, N.B. Power president Lori Clark will appear at the hearing for a second straight year to personally give evidence about the need for higher rates, something previous chief executives at the utility have rarely done.
"The cost of delivering electricity has risen significantly," Clark says in an opening statement that has already been filed with the EUB and is expected to be delivered today.
N.B.
Power CEO Lori Clark, shown here at an appearance at the legislature,
intends to personally appear at the utility's rate hearing to testify
about the need for higher prices. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
"We need to raise rates to allow us, as a cost-of-service utility, to cover our costs and that is reflected in our application. We understand that nobody likes to see rates going up, and we know this is a difficult time for our customers as they are already facing cost pressures on their everyday needs from gas to groceries."
Because of delays in scheduling the rate hearing, mostly caused by the New Brunswick government, N.B. Power was given permission by the EUB to raise its base rates for this year on April 1 by an average of 9.25 per cent, including 9.8 per cent on residential and large industrial customers.
The hearing will investigate whether that increase was justified. It will also determine whether a second average increase of 9.25 per cent, including another 9.8 per cent increase on residential and large industrial customers scheduled for April 2025, is warranted.
By the time the hearing concludes in late August, N.B. Power will have collected an estimated $52 million in additional revenue from customers from the higher rates awarded in April.
The utility will be required to refund a portion of that if the EUB eventually decides the full increase is too high.
A
decision by Premier Blaine Higgs not to fill vacancies on the Energy
and Utilities Board for several months left it unable to hold hearings
on N.B. Power's rate increase in May. Earlier, a surprise government
decision to alter N.B. Power's debt targets scuttled a February hearing.
(Radio-Canada)
"The Board directs NB Power to make billing adjustments for customers in the event that final rates approved by the Board are different than the rates approved in the interim Order," the EUB wrote in its decision to allow increased rates to take effect in April before the hearing into whether they are reasonable.
Last year following a hearing, the EUB approved only two-thirds of an 8.9 per cent rate increase requested by the utility.
N.B. Power's application is the first seeking approval for rates that cover more than one year.
New rules allow that option.
The utility has filed more than 400 exhibits in support of its application and answered several hundred written questions submitted in advance of the hearing by other interested parties.
Those include the industrial forest company J.D. Irving Ltd., the province's three municipal utilities, the community group Human Development Council, public intervener Alain Chiasson and the EUB itself.
N.B.
Power is planning to spend $70 million on the Mactaquac Dam
refurbishment project this year, $295 million next year and billions
more in future years. The utility says higher rates will help keep its
debt from ballooning because of it. (Shane Fowler/CBC)
Originally meant to be held in February the hearing has been unexpectedly delayed twice.
Last fall, just days before N.B. Power was supposed to file its application for new rates, the New Brunswick government changed its mind on debt targets the utility should meet.
That caused a 72-day delay in the application being submitted as the utility calculated the impact of that change on its budgets.
That forced the hearing to move from February to May, but it had to be cancelled again after a car accident involving the EUB's acting chair, Stephanie Wilson.
Legislation requires a three-person panel to conduct a hearing, and at the time the EUB was down to only three members following delays by the province in filling board vacancies. Wilson's absences made it impossible to proceed.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
NB Power begins quest to raise rates by nearly 20 per cent
Public intervener says he'll do everything in his power to convince independent board not to give the utility such a high hike
Alain Chiasson hopes New Brunswickers won’t have to swallow the biggest electricity price hikes in generations.
The province’s public intervener is preparing for NB Power’s general rate application next week before the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board.
“I’m worried people will struggle to pay their power bills,” said Chaisson, who’s an independent intervener appointed by the provincial government to represent the interests of everyday citizens.
“They’ll have to make difficult choices between paying for other things and their power bill. That will have a very significant effect on New Brunswickers if these rate increases are approved.”
The public utility is asking for an average rate increase of 9.25 per cent, backdated to April 1, and another average rate increase of 9.25 per cent for April 1, 2025. But that’s an average of all customer classes, including industrial, small business and residential clients.
For households, the outlook is grimmer. NB Power wants residential customers to pay 9.8 per cent more as of April, and 9.8 per cent next year, for a total of 19.6 per cent. The board already gave NB Power temporary permission to charge the higher amount since April, pending the latest hearing when it must prove its case over the better part of 16 days this summer.
Making matters more difficult, NB Power was already provided a three per cent catch-up increase based on unexpected losses last year.
All told, if NB Power gets what it wants, households will be paying nearly 23 per cent more for electricity next April than they were at the beginning of this year.
The hearings before the independent, quasi-judicial board start Monday and are scheduled to conclude on Aug. 23.
NB Power CEO Lori Clark will be one of the first executives to make a presentation to the board at the Delta Fredericton hotel.
We welcome the opportunity to explain the business decisions to support this rate application in this open and transparent forum.
Lori Clark
She has argued in the past that NB Power’s rates are artificially low because of past government decisions to freeze them or put restraints on how high they could go.
“These hearings are an important part of the independent regulatory process, and we will be answering many questions from interested parties,” Clark told Brunswick News in a prepared statement. “We respect the regulatory process and the role the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board plays in ensuring New Brunswickers pay a fair rate for their power. We welcome the opportunity to explain the business decisions to support this rate application in this open and transparent forum.”
NB Power CEO Lori Clark says even with rate increases, electricity prices in the province will remain competitive with its neighbours. Photo by John Chilibeck/ Brunswick News
In the documentation provided to the board, NB Power says rates will remain competitive with other nearby places should it approve the increases.
For instance, it will have lower rates than what’s offered in New Hampshire, Maine, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
However, if the rate hikes go ahead, Ontario and Newfoundland’s electricity prices will suddenly become cheaper than New Brunswick’s. British Columbia, Quebec and Manitoba already have cheaper prices. Alberta wasn’t included on the NB Power chart.
“That being said, NB Power understands the impact of the proposed increase on customers and remains committed to cost minimization,” the document states.
“NB Power is concerned about affordability for our customers as they face a variety of inflationary pressures and recognizes that many customers will be challenged by this proposed increase. The utility will help customers access programs to help them manage their energy use and make alternative payment arrangements.”
But Chiasson said he doesn’t buy NB Power’s arguments. His office has hired two utility experts, Robert Knecht of Industrial Economics in Cambridge, Mass., and Dustin Madsen of Emrydia Consulting in Calgary, to analyze the reams of documents from NB Power.
They will present their findings to the board toward the end of the hearings.
No, they shouldn’t have that increase because it’s unprecedented.
Alain Chiasson
In the meantime, Chiasson will cross-examine the various witnesses, including NB Power executives.
“It’s an unprecedented increase and NB Power hasn’t tested their case. My position is that, no, they shouldn’t have that increase because it’s unprecedented and hopefully we’re going to provide some arguments to the board so that they won’t give the entire increase.”
Holland resigns as Tory cabinet minister, MLA
Ministerial duties will be split between Ted Flemming, Réjean Savoie
Natural Resources Minister Mike Holland has resigned from Premier Blaine Higgs’s Progressive Conservative cabinet and given up his seat as the MLA for Albert.
Holland, who was also the minister of Indigenous Affairs, “will be transitioning to prepare for private sector employment opportunities,” according to a government press release Thursday. As a result of his resignation effective Thursday, Justice Minister and Attorney General Ted Flemming will become the minister of natural resources and energy development as part of a cabinet shuffle.
Meanwhile, Réjean Savoie, minister responsible for the Regional Development Corporation, will become the minister of Indigenous Affairs, the government announced in a news release.
In February, Holland, who was first elected in 2018, announced he didn’t plan to reoffer in the provincial election scheduled for this fall. He told Brunswick News at the time he had accomplished everything he had set out do as natural resources minister and wanted to spend more time with his partner who lives in Nova Scotia.
“I want to personally thank Mike for his service to the province,” Higgs said in a press release Thursday. “He has worked hard, leading several departments with excellence, while being a strong voice for his constituents.”
Holland described his six years in office as an “incredible opportunity.”
“I am incredibly thankful to Premier Higgs for that and will always remember my time as a member of the legislative assembly fondly,” Holland said in the release.
The tone of Holland’s departure is more amicable than the recent exit of Environment Minister Gary Crossman.
In April, Crossman abruptly resigned from cabinet and gave up his Hampton seat, taking a swipe at the new “values” of the Higgs government on his way out. Crossman had already announced he didn’t plan to reoffer in the next election.
Holland and Crossman’s exits are among a recent wave of Tory MLA resignations.
In March, longtime Portland-Simonds MLA Trevor Holder announced his resignation shortly after fellow Saint John colleague Arlene Dunn resigned from cabinet and from her Saint John Harbour seat.
Other Tory MLAs have indicated they’re not reoffering in the next election. Those include Dorothy Shephard, Daniel Allain, Jeff Carr, Ross Wetmore, Bruce Fitch and Andrea Anderson-Mason.
– With files from Andrew Waugh
No comments:
Post a Comment