Nova Scotia Power begs Ottawa: 'We need help' to stabilize rates
CBC
Nova Scotia Power joined the Houston government Wednesday calling for financial assistance from Ottawa to stabilize power rates in a province where they have jumped 14 per cent in two years — with further increases to come as the electrical system transitions from its reliance on fossil fuels.
"We've been pleading with the federal government," Nova Scotia Power president and CEO Peter Gregg told a business luncheon in Halifax. "We need help."
The most immediate pressure is the company's outstanding fuel bill, which stood at $343 million at the end of September and has since grown to $395 million, according to the province.
Fuel costs are automatically passed on to ratepayers.
Gregg cited the 2021 bailout for Newfoundland and Labrador ratepayers facing a huge increase because of delays in the Muskrat Falls hydro project.
The ill-fated mega project was partially responsible for Nova Scotia Power's fuel predicament.
The company was forced to buy additional fossil fuel because it did not receive contracted deliveries from Muskrat Falls just as world prices soared because of the Russian war on Ukraine.
"Muskrat Falls was one of the challenges of why we had more fuel costs. We weren't getting that clean electricity supplied to us because of their delays," Gregg told reporters later.
"The federal government helped Newfoundland in terms of the cost of the delays there and we, as well as the province, think that the federal government has a role to play here," he said Wednesday.
This week, the provincial government did its part to help ratepayers and Nova Scotia Power's credit rating.
A provincial Crown corporation proposes to assume $117 million of Nova Scotia Power's fuel bill, to be paid back by ratepayers over 10 years, adding one per cent to rates.
The $117 million figure is no coincidence.
It is the amount of money Nova Scotia Power says it needs to collect from its fuel bill in 2024 to avoid the real risk of a credit rating downgrade to "non investment grade" or junk bond status.
"This would be unprecedented for NS Power and Canadian utilities in general and would significantly magnify the access to, and cost of, capital issues resulting from the 2022 credit downgrades," the company said in an application to the Nova Scotia and Utility and Review Board this week.
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