NDP sets a bad power precedent

RACHEL BRIGHTON | Just Business
Sun, Jul 25 - 4:53 AM

Three years after the passage of the Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act and an agreement to meet the national standard for mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants, the mercurial NDP government has turned on a dime.

The "dime" was the higher power rates forecasted by Nova Scotia Power to offset the cost of burning cleaner fuel to comply with the law.

After meeting privately this month with business, community, environmental and university groups, government determined the public would happily accept higher levels of the neuro-poison for several more years in exchange for lower power bills next year.

By pushing the agreed mercury cap back four years to 2014 — beyond the next election — the NDP judged it could avert the backlash that would have been triggered by steep power rate hikes.

Nova Scotia Power was seeking rate increases of 12 per cent for residential customers and 18 per cent for industrial users.

In its defence, the NDP has set an even lower cap on mercury emissions for 2020, to compensate for breaking its word on the 2010 cap.

The reason for the mercury cap, set by Canada and agreed to by Nova Scotia, is that coal-fired power plants are a leading contributor to mercury levels in Canada.

Whether the power utility could have achieved the mercury reductions for less money remains an unan-swered question because the premier intervened before the utility’s case could be examined by the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board in the fall.

The rapid turnaround on this issue, following pressure from the business community, stands in contrast with the widespread business support for the proposed biomass joint venture between Nova Scotia Power and NewPage Port Hawkesbury Ltd.

That project has received resounding support from regional business groups and development agencies.

The biomass project is being put forward so the utility can meet another set of legislated targets, for renewable energy.

As an industrial expansion, the biomass project offers its own rewards, in the forms of jobs and investment.

In contrast, the mercury caps appear to come with an unpalatable cost, with no economic sweetener to make the medicine go down.

It was probably a mistake to create the environmental legislation in such a way that it could be broken down into popular and less popular parts by the utility.

For example, the latest conservation measures were approved with little controversy, whereas the mercury-reduction commitments were couched within a broader rate proposal that spooked business and forced government to change its mind.

The utility may have anticipated that government would fail this test of nerves.

Many Nova Scotians will be relieved that government did change its mind on the mercury cap, but cherry-picking environmental commitments sets a bad precedent. So does changing the law on the basis of backroom discussions. That leaves the impression that people who supported the law have been hoodwinked.

Instead of playing off the environment against economics, which is what happened this week, government and business should discover how environmental health can generate economic wealth.

Rachel Brighton is the publisher of the regional magazine Coastlands and a former business editor and journalist.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1193594.html

N.S., N.B. connect on power plan

By The Canadian Press
Wed, Jul 21 - 5:03 AM

FREDERICTON — New Brunswick and Nova Scotia want to bolster the regional energy grid to act as an electricity corridor for power from as far away as Newfoundland and Labrador after the collapse of a deal to sell New Brunswick’s public utility to Hydro-Quebec.

Power utilities from the neighbouring provinces announced Tuesday they want to build new transmission lines to more than double the capacity they have to ship electricity between them. The proposed 500-megawatt connection would run between southern New Brunswick and Colchester County, adding to the existing 300-megawatt connection.

"This new transmission capacity is a crucial piece of infrastructure that will open the door for new renewable energy projects in New Brunswick and power exports to Nova Scotia," New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham told a news conference in Fredericton, where he was joined by his Nova Scotia counterpart Darrell Dexter and officials from NB Power and Nova Scotia Power.

"Historically, Nova Scotia was an energy island, and now, because of this project, the province will have a stronger grid that can import and export power," said Dexter. "Businesses and Nova Scotians from one end of the province to the other will have stable energy prices, which will result in more affordable power in the foreseeable future."

Dexter said it also opens the door to using his province as part of a route to get power from Lower Churchill in Labrador to waiting markets in New England.

"We’re still in the process of talking with Newfoundland about how that could happen and there are ongoing negotiations," Dexter said. "But this puts you in the position to be able to facilitate that kind of eventual agreement."

Tim Curry, president of the Atlantica Centre for Energy, an industry association, said any effort to bolster the transmission grid creates opportunities.

"There are a lot of additional steps that probably need to be contemplated and some decisions made on them in order to really get the full potential of what we can do in this region, not only with generation but movement of energy through and around the region," he said.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1192934.html

NSP gets OK to lower fines

Big users encouraged to cut consumption during high demand
By BILL POWER Business Reporter
Wed. Jul 14 - 4:53 AM

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.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Search/1191918.html

NDP asked to intervene in power rate hike

Government pressured to reduce costly mercury emission targets
By KEITH DOUCETTE The Canadian Press
Wed. Jul 14 - 4:53 AM

A cross-section of business and community organizations made it clear Tuesday that the province has to deal with the impact of potential rate increases Nova Scotia Power says are needed to meet mercury emission targets.

The utility will go before provincial regulators in the fall to seek an increase as high as 12 per cent for residential users and 18 per cent for businesses to help it deal with the costs of burning cleaner coal at its power generating plants.

Nova Scotia Power officials have said the predicted rates are based on actual costs the utility is incurring to upgrade its environmental performance.

The groups met Tuesday with Energy Minister Bill Estabrooks, who emerged to say the province needs to proceed in a way that balances bottom-line concerns with the clear need to meet environmental goals.

But when asked by reporters, Estabrooks wouldn’t say whether the growing pressure would force the government to back away from its emissions targets.

"Government is all about balance," he said. "Government is all about making sure that we put things in perspective and that’s what I’m going bring to my colleagues attention the next time I sit at that (cabinet) table.

"This (the increase) is a huge concern . . . and is something that we are going to have to look at very clearly."

Estabrooks said the province will take a position on the increase and make a submission to the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board, although he wouldn’t tip his hand.

Nova Scotia Power will also submit its evidence for an increase to the board during an Oct. 18 hearing. If approved, a rate hike would take effect Jan. 1.

The board approved a fuel adjustment mechanism for the utility in 2008. It limits the company to average increases of 9.3 per cent, while allowing it to extend added or reduced fuel costs to customers.

Nova Scotia Power spokesman David Rodenhiser said there was still time for "some change" in the predicted increase ahead of the fall hearing, but said a cost is inevitable.

"I think people can expect that moving towards more renewable lower-emission generation comes with a price," said Rodenhiser .

But it’s a price many groups say they just can’t stomach.

Robert Patzelt of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Nova Scotia division said the increase would simply add to overall costs for big companies that are the largest users of the provincial power grid.

Although he said adjusting emissions targets is "not the way to go," Patzelt advocates other measures, including partial deregulation of the energy sector to reduce costs through incentives and limited competition.

"We live in a carbon-constrained world and what we want to do is work with everyone to reduce our dependence on external sources and on getting control of our own energy future," said Patzelt.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Search/1191898.html

Green power parts hit the highways

Wind turbine components being hauled to Digby, Nuttby Mountain
By BILL POWER Business Reporter
Thu. Jul 15 - 4:54 AM

Huge components for two of Nova Scotia Power’s biggest wind energy projects could be spotted on Nova Scotia highways Wednesday.

The mobile display of green power will continue for about three weeks.

Machine heads and hubs for about 20 wind turbines will be hauled to the Digby wind farm from Halifax, while components for 22 turbines for the Nuttby Mountain wind farm 20 kilometres north of Truro will be transported from Sheet Harbour.

"We’re expecting one entire turbine to arrive each day," Sean Brennan, project manager for the Digby wind farm, said Wednesday.

A similar delivery pace will be maintained at the Nuttby Mountain site, said project manager Debra McLellan.

"The components were unloaded at Sheet Harbour just last week and we’re ready," she said.

A massive machine head and hub, each on its own special trailer, left Halifax early Wednesday for Digby. The machine heads, which generate the electricity, weigh about 50 metric tonnes each, while the hubs weigh about a third of that but are still big enough to require separate transport.

"These components will be loaded during the day and will depart just after midnight when traffic is at a minimum," said Katie Burgess, a spokeswoman for Nova Scotia Power.

Tractor-trailers designed to handle the big loads will leave the Port of Halifax in darkness over the next three weeks and make their way to Digby the long way on Highway 103.

"The machine heads are too heavy and tall for some parts of the shorter Highway 101 route through the Annapolis Valley," Brennan said.

Turbine blades and tower sections are being transported to Digby from Montreal, again using Highway 103 because of the length of the tower sections. Each of the three tower sections for each turbine is 25 to 30 metres long.

Ironically, the installation of the turbines will depend on the wind.

"These sites were selected because they are so windy, and strong winds will slow the erection process," McLellan said.

All turbines at both sites should be up by this fall and generating electricity for the power grid by December.

Nova Scotia Power has already predicted that rate increases will be needed for 2011 to cover the cost of the wind-power equipment and of buying cleaner coal for power-generating stations to meet provincial emissions standards.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1192107.html

Clean-energy pledge falls short

Atlantic provinces 0-for-4 on emissions targets, coalition says
By KEITH DOUCETTE The Canadian Press
Tue. Jul 13 - 4:53 AM

Although some progress has been made, none of the Atlantic provinces is on track to hit regional greenhouse gas emission reduction levels promised in 2001, says a regional coalition of environmental groups.

The coalition — the Sierra Club-Canada Atlantic, the Ecology Action Centre and the Conservation Council of New Brunswick and Eco P.E.I. — released a report Monday as eastern Canadian premiers and New England governors held their annual meeting in Lenox, Mass.

The group pointed out that under the regional climate change action plan, jurisdictions on both sides of the border agreed to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2010. The overall goal is to see reductions by up to 85 per cent by 2050.

The coalition said that the latest federal figures published in 2008 show that Nova Scotia was 9.9 per cent above the 1990 levels while New Brunswick was 12.8 per cent over and Newfoundland and Labrador 6.9 per cent over.

Figures for Prince Edward Island were not included.

"We have large variations from year to year, but there doesn’t seem to be any trend toward the expected level of the 1990 emissions," said Piotr Trela of the Sierra Club.

Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter, who co-chaired the Massachusetts meeting, said the premiers and governors are aware of the commitments that were made and feel some progress has resulted in the last 10 years.

"The consensus was that over that 10 years the groundwork was in fact laid," he said in a telephone interview. "The time frame was not as important as the action that got taken over the longer term."

Dexter said every jurisdiction is starting to see reductions while the use of various sources of renewable energy is on the increase.

However, the premier said continued regional co-operation in the energy sector would be key to the further reduction of greenhouse gas levels.

He pointed to Nova Scotia’s new memorandum of understanding with Maine on the development of offshore energy resources, such as tidal power, as an example of that commitment. Dexter also said a cross-border energy committee would meet in Nova Scotia this fall to further discuss options surrounding renewable energy sources.

Brennan Vogel of the Ecology Action Centre of Halifax believes there is cause to be optimistic on the policy side because Nova Scotia has legislated that 25 per cent of its energy needs should come from renewable sources by 2015.

"What we see happening in the provincial policy world right now is government moving quicker than they have at any time in the last decade," said Vogel.

But he said there needs to be a more cohesive policy that would include such things as tailpipe emission standards and options to improve public transportation in urban and rural settings.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1191801.html

NSP: New $200m power line between N.S., N.B. needed within decade

By JUDY MYRDEN Business Reporter
Thu. Jul 8 - 4:53 AM

Nova Scotia Power is eyeing expansion of its electricity transmission system between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

The utility says a new 345-kilovolt power line costing $200 million will be needed within a decade to improve the stability and reliability of the power system in both provinces.

Nova Scotia Power, in a report filed with the Utility and Review Board on June 30, says land must be acquired and studies conducted.

The report says the power company is seeking review board approval to spend $4.7 million on acquiring rights-of-way in northern Nova Scotia.

Nova Scotia Power says a new power line may be necessary to import and export electricity as more power will be generated from renewable sources.

"Anticipated changes in generation in Nova Scotia such as increased wind power may require reinforcement of the provincial (power transmission system)," the company says.

"Proposed large-scale generation developments outside of Nova Scotia, if pursued, also could provide material benefits for Nova Scotia Power customers which would justify the addition of a second (power line). Within the next decade, another (line) will become necessary."

Patty Faith, a spokeswoman for Nova Scotia Power, said a route for the proposed new power line has not been chosen and a breakdown of costs has not been calculated.

"It is very, very preliminary at this stage," she said.

At present, the electrical systems of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are connected by three overhead transmission lines — a 345-kV line from Onslow to Memramcook, N.B., and two 138-kV lines from Springhill to Memramcook.

But more capacity will be needed if large-scale electricity-generating developments outside the province, such as Lower Churchill Falls in Newfoundland and Point Lepreau 2 in New Brunswick, proceed.

Power from these projects would help Nova Scotia Power meet provincial government targets for generating electricity from renewable sources.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1190874.html