Paying more for power: NSP filing for another rate hike
Posted Apr 21, 2011 05:15:08 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Nova Scotia Power is working on plans for another rate hike that would boost the base electricity price by 7.1 per cent for residential customers.
The total increase could be closer to nine per cent once charges for efficiency programs are added in.
NSP General Manager of Regulatory Affairs Rene Gallant says that although there’s been six rate hikes in the last nine years, they were mostly a function of the fuel adjustment mechanism, which passes the changing cost of power-generating fuel on to customers.
“Most recently, it did make rates go up, and it’s designed to make sure that only the actual costs of fuel are paid,” he said. “But general rates happen a lot less regularly than that, and it has been since 2009 since we’ve changed general rates.”
Gallant says the company has been investing in green infrastructure since then and needs to start recouping some of that money.
“The most important one, the largest factor is that our company’s invested about a billion dollars in Nova Scotia in that time period,” he said. “That’s for things like wind farms, renewable energy investments, improvements to our plants to make them more environmentally high-performing.”
If the application were submitted today, Nova Scotia Power would be asking for an average of 7.3 per cent increase, 7.1 per cent for residential users and 10 per cent for industrial customers.
Gallant says those numbers aren’t set in stone, and could be changed depending on customer feedback.
“We are open to good ideas from our customers about how we can improve our system,” he said.
The increase will take effect in 2012, but the utility is predicting power rates could go up by 20 per cent by 2015, thanks to rising coal costs and increased usage.
