Nova Scotia Power delays start of controversial new charge for solar customers

Nova Scotia Power has pushed back by a year the start date of a proposed new charge for customers who generate electricity and sell it back to the grid, following days of concern from the solar industry and politicians worried that it will damage the sector.

The company applied to the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (UARB) last week for various changes, including a "system access charge" of $8 per kilowatt monthly on net metered installations. The vast majority of the province's 4,100 net metering customers are residential customers with solar power, according to the application. 

The proposed charge would have come into effect Tuesday if approved, but Nova Scotia Power said in a release it will change the date in its filing from Feb. 1, 2022, to Feb. 1, 2023.

CEO Peter Gregg said in a statement Tuesday that he heard about the industry concerns from Solar Nova Scotia, and "collaboration and consultation are important to me and my team and when we don't get it right, we are committed to fixing it."

"We regret that there weren't more conversations with the solar industry ahead of the filing and that they were caught off guard by the proposed changes and, specifically, the effective date these changes would apply," Gregg said.

For those with a typical 10-kilowatt solar system, which generates around $1,800 of electricity a year, the new charge would mean those customers would be required to pay $960 back to NSP. That would roughly double the length of time it takes for those customers to pay off their investment for the panels.

David Brushett, chair of Solar Nova Scotia, said he told Gregg on Monday about all the concerns from solar installers and others in the industry, who are fielding cancellations and thinking about when they might have to lay people off.

"It just kind of came without warning and basically like overturned everybody's businesses overnight," Brushett said. "(Gregg) listened to us. I think he expressed that they could have gone about it in a different way."

Brushett said his group is still finalizing a legal response to the NSP proposal, but it has already filed an official complaint against the company with the UARB.

On Tuesday, Gregg said NSP recognizes that customers who choose solar "do invest a significant amount" and do pay for the electricity they use, but they don't pay for costs associated with them having access to the electrical grid when they need energy, such as on cold winter evenings when the sun is not shining.

"Under the current structure, customers who may not choose solar are paying for net metering users to be able to rely on and have access to the grid when they need it," Gregg said.

Gregg added that net metering is a challenge for many jurisdictions, and NSP is committed to a consultation process and work is underway.

"We want to use this time to get the solution to this problem right and to also make sure that what we build together is sustainable for generations to come," he said.