Nova Scotia Power received clearance Tuesday to reduce fines levied against big power users who are slow to respond to requests to power down when demand surges.
A Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board decision approved a proposal from the power company that will see fines faced by participating customers reduced by about half compared with fines levied in the past.
"Nova Scotia Power felt the severity of the potential fine was keeping some big power users from participating," Nova Scotia Power spokesman David Rodenhiser said in an interview Tuesday.
A complicated formula is used to determine an appropriate fine to levy against participating customers who are slow to respond to power-down requests or who power back up too quickly. Four big industrial power users were fined through the program last year.
The system was devised years ago as an alternative to the utility building additional generating capacity, at tremendous cost, to handle surges in demand during peak periods.
Participating big power users get a rate discount in return for responding within 10 minutes to shutdown requests that apply to "interruptible" energy use. Nova Scotia Power can then redirect this electricity elsewhere on the grid.
The requests typically occur during extremely cold periods in winter when demand for electricity is heaviest.
"Shutting down a big production facility can be a complicated process," said Rodenhiser.
The board’s decision calls the reduced fine a compromise solution.
"It leaves in place a significant incentive to interrupt and also creates an incentive to continue to comply with a call for interruption if the customer fails to do so initially," reads the decision.
"It is absolutely critical that (the utility) be able to rely on the interruptible customers interrupting when system conditions require."
Some of Nova Scotia’s biggest companies participated in the board’s review of the power interruption tariff, including NewPage Port Hawkesbury Ltd., Bowater Mersey Paper Company Ltd., Michelin North America (Canada) Inc., Oxford Frozen Foods Ltd., Minas Basin Pulp and Power Company Ltd. and Shaw Resources.
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