Online ad gone with the wind

N.S. Securities commission says Ontario company violated rules
By ANDREI DEZSI
Thu, Apr 28 - 4:54 AM

The Nova Scotia Securities Commission has forced an Ontario company to remove an online ad seeking investors.

Carl Strand started Strand Energy Corp., of Wasaga Beach, Ont., six years ago and planned to build wind turbines somewhere in Nova Scotia.

Strand posted an ad on Kijiji, a classified ads website, on Friday to gauge local interest in helping him set up a factory here.

The ad said that any pledges made by individuals are not binding but "only a way of showing our company that individuals are interested."

It also said investments of $500 per pledge would be made through a community economic development investment fund, although Strand does not have approval to set up such a fund here.

Kevin Redden, the commission’s corporate finance director, told Strand Tuesday that his ad violates CEDIF regulations that say people are not allowed to advertise or "distribute promotional material" if they haven’t been given provincial approval.

"We never asked anybody for money in that ad that we put in. It was only a non-binding pledge that if they wanted to put some money in at a later date they could," Strand said Tuesday.

"We did not know that this was against the rules of the Nova Scotia Securities Commission because we weren’t asking for any money. But apparently it is."

A CEDIF allows people to invest in local businesses, said Chris Payne, a spokesman with the Department of Economic and Rural Development.

"Instead of investing in the Toronto stock exchange, you’re investing it locally down the street," Payne said of CEDIFs.

Investors can write off 35 per cent of the amount invested into such funds and can get dividends, said Payne. There are currently 10 funds that are paying out dividends in the province, he added.

Payne said that groups that want to set up a fund need to fill out paperwork and get provincial approval before they can approach investors.

"I did get a call from (Strand Energy Corp.) a few weeks ago. They had some inquiries and I gave them some information. But by no means have they made a formal application. They most certainly are not approved," said Payne.

"I will be taking this ad and forwarding it to my colleagues at the securities commission to follow it up," Payne said when informed of the Kijiji ad on Tuesday.

Strand, the designer of the company’s wind turbines, said he has invested $250,000 in his company and built five prototypes over the past six years.

StrandEnergy.ca, the company’s website, says that while the business is currently small, it hopes to capture a large share of the renewable energy market.

"We are pulling the ad and may have to reconsider locating in Nova Scotia," said Strand.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1240527.html

NS Power prepares for 2012 rate hike

CBC News

Posted: Apr 20, 2011 9:17 PM

Nova Scotia Power is preparing to request its seventh power rate increase in a decade, company representatives said Wednesday.

The utility is projecting electricity costs to increase 20 per cent by 2015. That includes an average residential rate increase of nine per cent next year, four per cent in 2013, two per cent in 2014 and five per cent in 2015.

Nova Scotia Power has not yet filed its application with the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board, company representatives said at a briefing for stakeholders and members of the media.

Rene Gallant, the general manager of regulatory affairs with the utility, said the main reason ratepayers may have to pay more next year is to cover renewable projects that are currently on the grid but are not yet paid for.

"We've invested about $1 billion in the last three years in Nova Scotia. We've been building wind farms, we've been investing in our plants and our equipment, putting equipment on the plants to keep our emissions down and meet the province's standards," Gallant told reporters after the news conference.

He added that the $1 billion has not yet been included in the utility's rates.

"At some point, like your Visa card, you have to start paying back those amounts that you've borrowed. So that's a key driver of why we're thinking we'll need to change rates," said Gallant.

Nova Scotia Power said it will need $90 million from ratepayers next year — $4.9 million of which is to increase dividends to its shareholders.

Although the utility is coming off a year of record profits, Gallant said the company needs to give shareholders more money to stay competitive.

"They don't have to invest in our company, they can invest in any number of utilities and if the rate of return is not competitive with those other utilities, they'll go somewhere else," he said.

Don Regan, who represents the Municipal Electric Utilities Co-operative, said developments like the proposed Lower Churchill hydroelectric megaproject will also mean higher rates in the future.

"There are capital plans the company has, such as the undersea cable from Newfoundland, which aren't in the numbers we saw today or in the years we saw today," Regan told CBC News.

"We're appreciative of the company laying out the future as they have here today — something they haven't done much in the past — and we're not surprised by what they've brought forward, but it does give us the opportunity to work together to mitigate these effects."

Gallant said the utility hopes there will be rate stability in several years when it completes a transition to renewable energy, an issue that Nova Scotia's NDP government has been pressing since it came to power.

Last year, the provincial government announced plans for 40 per cent of all electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020. It had already set a goal of 25 per cent by 2015.

On Wednesday, Premier Darrell Dexter said Nova Scotia Power's plans to ask for a rate increase has not shaken his belief in the renewable energy plan.

"We're obviously very concerned with anything that affects people in the province. It is a difficult time for people trying to make ends meet," Dexter said.

"Obviously this is disappointing. We'll be at the hearing, of course, to ask questions and see that they are able to justify the increased costs."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2011/04/20/ns-power-rate-increase.html

NSP eyes 9% hike next year

Utility predicts power rates could rise 20% by 2015
By SCHENLEY BROWN
Thu, Apr 21 - 4:55 AM

Nova Scotia Power is proposing to increase rates by an average of nine per cent in 2012, and the utility predicts a 20 per cent hike by 2015.

Rising costs for coal and imported electricity and higher customer use are to blame for the proposed increases, Nova Scotia Power says.

Residential power rates would jump 7.1 per cent — the seventh increase in a decade — if approved by the provincial regulator, the Utility and Review Board. Homeowners could face an increase of as much as 8.8 per cent after adding Efficiency Nova Scotia charges and after Nova Scotia Power’s fuel adjustment mechanism comes into play.

That mechanism periodically moves rates up or down to reflect the difference between estimated and actual fuel costs.

Rene Gallant, general manager and regulatory counsel for Nova Scotia Power, said the utility’s costs are higher than recoveries, and that would suggest a higher rate increase.

Higher coal costs in 2012 are expected to account for about $21 million more in expenses for Nova Scotia Power, while increased power use will cost about $17 million more and the predicted price of imported power will add about $16 million in costs.

"We have the rest of the year to try and turn that around, (but) I can’t sit here and say we’re going to be able to," Gallant said at the presentation Wednesday.

Incurred in those increases is a request to boost Nova Scotia Power’s return on equity to 9.6 per cent from 9.35 per cent.

"Our analysts are telling us that we are below where other utilities’ return on equity is set," Gallant said.

The increase in return on equity is a mechanism to keep the company competitive with other utilities when it comes to gaining investment dollars, he said.

John Merrick, a lawyer and consumer advocate, said he will be scrutinizing Nova Scotia Power’s proposed increases carefully.

"If anything, we think the rate of return should be reduced, because they tend to try and shift all the risk of their operation over to the ratepayer," Merrick said in a telephone interview.

The review board hasn’t approved the request for rate hikes but Nova Scotia Power plans to file an application next month to complete the hearing process for an effective rate change next Jan. 1.

Premier Darrell Dexter said he was disappointed when he heard of the pending application.

"My hope is that they’re able to find a way to lessen the burden on ratepayers."

The government will ask for justification of the proposed rate hike at the review board hearing, Dexter said.

Last summer, NSP’s short-term emission targets for mercury were reduced in order to lower rate hikes, but Dexter said he’s not aware of a similar measure the government could take now.

Progressive Conservative Leader Jamie Baillie said Nova Scotia Power should first re-evaluate its operating and administrative costs before proposing an increase of that size.

"Nova Scotians are suffering from rate-hike fatigue at this point," he said.

Industrial customers could see rates increase 10 per cent, while commercial rates could rise by 6.1 per cent. With the fuel adjustments, industrial and commercial rates could increase by 13.5 and 7.4 per cent respectively.

Nova Scotia Power’s two largest industrial customers, AbitibiBowater and NewPage Corp., would be hit with a rate hike of 13.5 per cent, with a possible increase to 16.8 per cent with the fuel adjustments.

Lawyers representing both plants said they will be asking Nova Scotia Power to modify their load retention tariff in order to protect their business.

"Our clients need stable, competitive rates over the long term," one lawyer said.

The municipal rate, which applies to Antigonish, Berwick, Canso, Lunenburg, Mahone Bay and Riverport, would experience a 7.02 per cent increase that could become a 9.1 per cent increase with the adjustments.

"We have proposed investments in reliability (and) we firmly believe they are in the best interests of customers both in the short term and long run," Gallant said, "but if people are not willing to pay and they’re willing to take that trade-off of less of an improvement of reliability in order to have a lower price, we can talk about that."

With David Jackson, provincial reporter

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1239410.html

Sprott taking wind fight to court

By CHRIS LAMBIE Business Editor
Fri, Apr 22 - 4:55 AM

Sprott Power Corp. has taken its battle to build a $60-million wind farm in the Annapolis Valley to Nova Scotia Supreme Court.

The Toronto-based company building the Hampton Mountain wind farm had filed an appeal earlier this month with the provincial regulator of a decision made last month by a development officer with the Municipality of the County of Annapolis not to renew 12 building permits for properties located in Arlington, Arlington West and Hampton in Annapolis County.

But Sprott has since decided a courtroom is a better place for the appeal.

"The chief building official erred in interpreting the Building Code Act and regulations and the Annapolis County building bylaw to authorise a refusal to renew building permits on the basis of a new land use bylaw being in force as at the renewal date, when the right to the permits had previously vested and the administrative requirements for renewal had been complied with," according to court documents made public Thursday.

The county official mistakenly interpreted regulations "to require more extensive construction than (Sprott) had carried out," according to the notice of appeal.

The same official also failed to take into account that Sprott had only carried out as much construction work as it was authorized by the province’s environmental authorities, say court documents.

Leon Sabean is one of several local residents leasing land to Sprott for the wind project.

"As far as I’m concerned it’s crazy," Sabean said Thursday of the development officer’s decision not to renew the building permits.

People have complained about potential noise from the turbines, and the possibility of sun flickering off the blades or ice forming on them and then flying off, and "all kinds of foolishness like that," he said.

"We have a few people come here in the summertime for maybe two or three weeks or a month and they just don’t want them," he said. "They don’t like the looks of them."

But the project will create jobs in the area and tax dollars for the county, Sabean said.

"Not only that but we’ve got a chance to get rid of all our dirty coal that we’re importing from other places," he said. "We’re sitting pretty if they let us do it."

Sprott wants a judge to set aside the decisions nixing its permits. The case is slated to be in court May 18.

"In March 2011 the appellants applied for renewals of building permits respecting the affected properties which had been originally issued by the building inspector of the Municipality of the County of Annapolis on March 9, 2010," say documents the company filed earlier this month with the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board.

"The municipality did not have in place a land use bylaw prohibiting the construction and use of large-scale wind turbines on the affected properties until May 13, 2010. The Annapolis County land use bylaw effective May 13, 2010, purported to preclude the erection of large-scale wind turbines on the affected properties. The decisions under appeal treated the renewal application in 2011 as though it were an original building permit application."

Sprott has told the URB that court is "unquestionably" the right place to argue the appeal.

"Sprott’s position is that both of the impugned decisions of the chief building official are reviewable by way of statutory appeal to the Supreme Court," say documents filed with the regulator.

"If Sprott is found to be correct, the UARB proceedings challenging the decision of the development officer are moot."

Sprott said it went to the board first "out of an abundance of caution," according to documents filed with the regulator. "The developments involve multimillion-dollar projects and the stakes are far too high for Sprott to risk an ultimate determination that the Supreme Court is the wrong forum in which to challenge one of these decisions."

Sprott was given provincial environmental approval earlier this year to install 12 two-megawatt towers but was informed it has to move four turbines that may interfere with recreational enjoyment and health. The project is located about four kilometres north of Bridgetown.

Sprott executed an asset purchase agreement earlier this year to acquire Amherst Wind Power LP, including the company’s 30-megawatt power purchase agreement with Nova Scotia Power Inc.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1239645.html

Proponents predict wave of turbines

Hundreds of tidal generators could follow prototypes into Bay of Fundy
By BILL POWER Business Reporter
Thu, Apr 21 - 4:55 AM

Tidal power proponents envision hundreds of electricity-generating turbines being installed in the Bay of Fundy within five years of the deployment of four prototypes.

Those prototypes are scheduled to be placed in the Minas Basin before the end of 2012.

After that, "we’re expecting we’ll be able to follow a similar deployment and monitoring approach to the one we are employing in northern Scotland," Joseph Fison, director of corporate development for Atlantis Resources Corp., said Wednesday.

"After four or five years, we could have hundreds of turbines in the water."

Fison made the comment after giving a presentation at the Renewable Energy Conference 2011 in Halifax.

Atlantis Resources plans to install a version of its AK1000 turbine in the Minas Basin in the summer of 2012 with partners Lockheed Martin Canada and Irving Shipbuilding.

Fison said Lockheed Martin will provide engineering and procurement services, while Irving will manufacture the turbine base in Halifax before it is floated to the Bay of Fundy.

He told conference participants that future developments could happen quickly if Atlantis Resources is selected for more deployments.

"We would move as quickly as regulatory approvals could be obtained," he said.

Fison said a recent test of an AK1000 turbine off the coast of Australia, located near a large breeding ground for penguins, demonstrated that the huge underwater generator could co-exist with marine animals.

Minas Basin Pulp and Power and Alstom of France are also planning to install turbines in the basin in 2012.

There is a possibility the $10-million turbine removed from the Bay of Fundy by partners OpenHydro of Ireland and Nova Scotia Power Inc. last year will be repositioned in 2011 or 2012.

The turbines will be connected to subsea transmission cables installed by Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy, which is leading the project.

Acadia University researcher Richard Karsten said computer modelling indicates a deployment of 2,000 tidal turbines in the Minas Basin area of the Bay of Fundy is reasonable from an ecological point of view.

The modelling indicates that many turbines would result in minimal change to the tidal action in the basin but he said more study needs to be done.

"We do not want to have green power that is not green," Karsten said. "We want to take advantage of the tidal currents without destroying them."

Several hundred people from the renewable energy sector attended the two-day conference in Halifax that concluded Wednesday.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1239570.html

N.S. factors Lower Churchill into 40% renewable energy goal

By LAURA FRASER
Chronicle Herald Staff Reporter
Sat, Apr 9 - 7:34 AM

The proposed undersea hydroelectric cable linking Newfoundland and Labrador to this province would help Nova Scotia reach its goal of getting 40 per cent of its power from renewable sources by 2020, the provincial energy minister says.

Charlie Parker introduced the Clean Energy Act on Friday, a bill that would include hydroelectricity as one of the sources counting toward the green energy targets set for the next nine years.

"This target . . . represents (the) transformation of our energy sector from one that is largely dependent on imports of dirty coal to one built on the foundation of clean, renewable resources from our own backyards," Parker said in his speech.

The proposed $6.2-billion Lower Churchill development could produce about 10 per cent of Nova Scotia’s electricity, if the project is completed on schedule by 2017, the minister said. That would account for about a quarter of the 40 per cent renewable energy commitment.

The hydroelectric power project is now undergoing an environmental evaluation.

Several members of the Senate energy committee questioned whether the project could realistically be finished by 2017, The Canadian Press reported when the committee met in Halifax last month.

Nova Scotia Power CEO Rob Bennett said then that the timeline could be met because Newfoundland’s Crown utility has been developing the project for more than 20 years.

The Liberal party’s energy critic found fault with the act.

"There is no goal in this legislation," Andrew Younger said. "It adds the word ‘hydroelectricity’ to the act. In terms of the goal, they’re going to put it in a cabinet order, which they can change at a whim if Churchill Falls doesn’t come through."

The Lower Churchill development would not be the only way to meet the 40 per cent target, but it would be the most affordable, Nova Scotia Power’s vice-president for sustainability said.

"There’s always renewable resources, (but if) it’s a question of the cost . . . we think (Churchill) is the best thing for customers," Robin McAdam said.

Nova Scotia Power has a 20 per cent stake in the Lower Churchill project, which guarantees it receives 170 megawatts of firm and flexible power annually for 35 years. The power will be delivered from the hydroelectric dam in Labrador through an undersea cable.

Progressive Conservative Leader Jamie Baillie said Parker’s bill would help the province move from coal-powered electricity to more sustainable forms of energy.

"Having said that, the legislation is silent on economic goals and I think it’s important that we not lose sight of the economic opportunity that Lower Churchill presents," he said.

Parker’s bill still has to be debated in the legislature before it becomes law. Even then, the change to the act would not hold Nova Scotia Power accountable to the 40 per cent target. To do that, the province would have to amend the province’s renewable energy regulations; currently, there are only regulated targets for 2011, 2013 and 2015 — at five, 10 and 25 per cent.

An Ecology Action Centre spokesman commended the province for setting the 40 per cent target but said he wonders if the required infrastructure will be in place to meet it.

"Relying heavily on renewable energy projects in other provinces to meet those targets could come back to be a problem here," Brennan Vogel said.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1237547.html