NB Power barred from raising electricity bills in April

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NB Power won’t be allowed to impose a steep interim rate hike to electricity prices on April 1.

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The New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board rejected the stopgap request for a 4.75 per cent increase Monday morning as the first order of business in a hearing to decide if the rate should rise sometime later this year.

The board also dismissed NB Power’s plea to impose a special charge, or rate rider, on the bills of more than 400,000 customers, both residential and commercial, dating back to April 1 if it eventually gets the green light to raise prices later in 2026.

The decision does not mean prices won’t go up. With the timing of the hearing, it’s more likely now that any changes to bills for all customer classes won’t happen till June or July, giving them a temporary reprieve.

Christopher Stewart, the board’s chairman, gave the three-member panel’s oral ruling at the Fredericton Convention Centre.

“The motion is denied,” Stewart said, as two high-powered executives of the public utility and several intervenors looked on. “The board has held that it should exercise its discretion to grant such relief requests only in exceptional circumstances.”

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The lawyer said the panel had made its decision based on a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1989, when Bell Canada fought for and won interim rate increases that had been denied by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

The nation’s top court set up three criteria for winning interim rate increases, which must be granted only in emergency situations.

They include a significant delay in a rate decision, a harmful effect on a company’s finances, and the regulator’s own discretion.

Stewart said while it was true his board wouldn’t decide on rates for several months, which would have a “deleterious” effect on NB Power’s finances, the Crown corporation had only itself to blame for the big delay.

NB Power applied last October to have its general rate application heard in February, which the board granted. But on Nov. 17, it asked for the proceedings to be bumped in favour of a hearing to decide if its proposed gas plant, worth more than $1 billion, should be built in Tantramar. That hearing went ahead in February.

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NB Power prioritized the gas plant hearings because it had signed a contract with ProEnergy of Missouri to build and run the new facility with specific deadlines. Its contract for the RIGS project originally stated that regulatory approval was needed by April 1, or the deal was off.

NB Power’s lawyer Leanne Murray said last week in a special hearing that it was like making a choice “between your children.” But the board chairman said that wasn’t enough to convince the panel that RIGS was a bigger priority than the general rate application.

Murray had made the case for energy security, stating the utility feared running out of enough power generation, given population growth, and RIGS was essential for meeting that increased demand by 2028.

Stewart, however, pointed out that NB Power had made a business decision to sign a contract with an April 1 cutoff. He suggested the public utility had only itself to blame for running out of time and asking to switch the hearing dates.

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Shelley Petit, chairperson of the New Brunswick Coalition of Persons with Disabilities, praised the panel’s decision.

“On behalf of the 35.3 per cent of New Brunswick residents with a disability, the bulk of whom live in deep energy poverty already, we were pleased to see that the board denied interim rates as well as the rate rider,” she said. “The lack of accountability to New Brunswick residents by the utility needs to stop. We are pleased with this first step.”

The public intervenor for the energy sector, Alain Chiasson, did not take a stance on the interim rate request, but the panel noted that the evidence his office had filed for the general rate application disputed some of NB Power’s evidence. Without the benefit of a full hearing, it would be wrong, Stewart said, to prematurely charge customers more, even if they could be credited back later should NB Power fail to make its case.

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NB Power said regardless of the decision, it remained committed to providing safe, reliable electricity for New Brunswickers and managing rising costs.

“While we are disappointed with the outcome, NB Power respects the important role of the regulator in ensuring a fair and transparent process,” said spokeswoman Elizabeth Fraser. “We will continue to fully participate in the regulatory process as our general rate application moves forward.”

Randy Hatfield, the executive director of the Human Development Council, has pushed hard against rate increases. Electricity prices in the province have already gone up 23 per cent in the last three years.

Last week, the council released a report stating that one in four households that heat primarily with electricity in New Brunswick suffer from energy poverty, that is, they spend more than six per cent of their pre-tax income on power bills. As many as one in seven customers are behind on their NB Power bill payments.

While Hatfield welcomed the board’s ruling, he warned that it would only give people a temporary break.

“The board clearly thought that NB Power did not meet the legal test for the increase. In any event, it puts things out by a couple of months. That’s about it.”

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