Slow response, bad service could result in $1M bill for Nova Scotia Power

Nova Scotia's electric utility could be on the hook for $1 million in fines if it fails to meet new performance standards for reliability, storm response and customer service imposed Monday by the province's utility and review board.

The standards, which come into effect Jan. 1, are the result of legislation passed last year by the provincial government after Nova Scotia Power's sluggish response to post-tropical storm Arthur in July 2014. At one point, 200,000 customers were without electricity. 

The board said the utility, owned by Emera Inc., cannot recover the annual maximum penalty of $1 million from ratepayers.

Utility's storm response slammed by premier

Premier Stephen McNeil blasted Nova Scotia Power's response to Arthur as 'inexcusable' and demanded improvement after it took the utility nearly a week to restore electricity.

We have a responsibility to deliver on our commitments and to be held accountable to standards that reflect customer expectations.- Bev Ware, Nova Scotia Power

Bev Ware, a spokeswoman for Nova Scotia Power, said the utility respects the board's decision.

"We embrace this concept and believe that as a regulated utility, we have a responsibility to deliver on our commitments and to be held accountable to standards that reflect customer expectations."

Ware said other Emera-owned utilities in Maine and the Caribbean already have performance standards that they meet.

When is it OK to hang up on a caller?

The standards are a complicated mix of benchmarks, metrics and averages. The board handed Nova Scotia Power five targets to meet when responding to major weather events:

• Answer at least 85 per cent of calls within 45 seconds during severe outages.
• The utility is allowed to "politely disconnect" — that is hang up — on no more than 10 per cent of callers on hold in any one year.
• Notify the public within four hours of a decision to open its emergency operations centre.
• Provide updates on estimated restoration times as soon as they are known.
• The percentage of customers restored within 48 hours must be equal to or less than the historical average minus a standard deviation that factors out anomalies.

New standards not just for extreme weather

The ruling also means Nova Scotia Power will be required to meet new customer service standards during normal operations when it isn't dealing with severe outages caused by weather.

• 70 per cent of calls to the customer care centre must be answered within 30 seconds.
• No more than two per cent of customers' bills issued throughout the year are to be estimated bills, which can be based on historical usage.
• The company's live, online outage map must show current outages affecting customers. 

Nova Scotia Power must also set average wait times customers can expect if they're getting connected to the grid during normal weather.

Those times will depend on a variety of factors, including whether a pole or transformer is required, whether temporary service is being converted to permanent service, and the length of power line extensions.

Utility denied freebie transition year 

The board said Nova Scotia Power must operate within four so-called interruption indexes that are standard in the industry. The indexes measure the average frequency and duration of power outages.

However, interruptions caused by severe weather will not be used in calculating reliability averages. The regulator accepted the utility's argument that severe weather is outside of its control.  

The utility had hoped to be exempt from fines if it met all but one storm response target, even if it failed to meet the customer service standards. It argued a compliance plan would be sufficient.

The board disagreed.

Fines "will help maintain ratepayers' confidence in the utility's pursuit of all performance standards," the board said in its decision. It also rejected Nova Scotia Power's request for a penalty-free transition year.

Performance benchmarks to be reviewed

The ruling said if Nova Scotia Power accepts it should be subject to administrative penalties if it fails to meet the new performance standards. 

Some of the performance benchmarks will be updated yearly, based on a five-year rolling average. The decision said the "new targets cannot be worse than the prior year."

The methodology for calculating targets will be updated after an initial five-year period from 2017 to 2021.