N.S. Power wants ratepayers to foot $22M bill for last year's storm restorations

Nova Scotia Power is seeking another rate increase from customers — this time to pay for $22 million in storm restorations done last year.

This week, the company applied to regulators asking for an average 1.3 per cent increase effective January 2025. Domestic customers are facing a 1.7 per cent hike.

A spokesperson for NSP said the proposed hike would last for one year.

This application is separate from the $24.6 million the company wants to recover from ratepayers related to the cost of post-tropical storm Fiona in September 2022.

The justification

The company said it spent $32 million last year preparing and restoring power because of severe storms.

Approved rates only covered one-third of the cost, and now the utility wants to charge ratepayers the difference.

NSP is applying under a one-time storm cost recovery rider that goes into effect Jan. 1, 2025. The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board approved the rider as part of a general rate application in the fall of 2022.

That rate case also resulted in a 14 per cent rate increase over two years: 6.9 percent in 2023 and 6.9 per cent starting in January 2024.

The storms of 2023

Nova Scotia Power said it is dealing with increasingly severe and expensive storms due to climate change. As a cost-of-service utility, it is entitled to recover its costs from ratepayers.

The company ranks storms on the basis of severity with so-called level 3 and level 4 storms deemed the most severe.

NSP said there were six level 3 storms in 2023: a lightning and rain event in July, post-tropical storms Lee in September and Philippe in October, and three storm days in December.

There were no level 4 storms in 2023.

The storm costs included staging crews across the province, overtime, repair materials, outside service providers, and mutual aid utilities brought in to assist in restoration.