No fooling: N.B. Power rate hike April 1 to cost average residential customer $244
Premier promises action as average households cope with $645 in higher charges in 3 years
N.B. Power's latest rate increase took effect early Tuesday and for an average residential customer it will add about $244 in higher charges in the coming year according to a recent decision of the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board.
The board held hearings into the rate increase last year, but had been waiting to finalize amounts so it could calculate and add in a surcharge that customers are to be billed to help retire past over-expenditures by the utility.
Those surcharges were approved two weeks ago and incorporated into a new rate table and schedule all, of which was set to take effect April 1.
"The Board has reviewed the revised and refiled table and has determined that it complies with the Board's direction," acting EUB chair Christopher Stewart wrote on March 21 in a final order that cleared the way for all elements of the new rate package to be implemented.
According to data filed by N.B. Power with the EUB, its average residential customer consumes about 16,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year. At that level, under the new rates, an urban household will pay $2,781.80 for electricity in the coming year, not including taxes.
That is $244 more than last year. It is also $645.20 more than three years ago following increases in April 2024 and April 2023.
The changes still leave N.B. Power with some of the lowest rates for electricity in the region outside Quebec. But with the utility's prices rising 30 per cent in three years, consumers have not been in a mood to look at silver linings.
Last week, New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt expressed frustration with the parade of rate hikes and announced a government review of N.B. Power will soon be undertaken with all potential solutions, including a sale of the utility, up for discussion.
She promised widespread public consultations will be a central part of that effort.
"I am not going to assume that I know what every single New Brunswicker thinks about N.B. Power," said Holt. I certainly know what I hear them telling me right now — it needs to change. The rates can't keep going like they're going now and the status quo cannot continue."
The price of electricity has emerged as a major political issue even though the latest increase was not a surprise.
It was originally proposed by N.B. Power in December 2023 and has been subject to scrutiny and debate for the last 15 months.
During October's general election, N.B. Power's future was not a major issue campaigned on by any party, but a series of events in February suddenly elevated concerns about its troubles.
In mid-February, the province lowered its estimate of expected net earnings at N.B. Power for its most recent financial year by $59.3 million after another disappointing year of production at the Point Lepreau nuclear generating station.
Days later, J.D. Irving Ltd announced it was cutting production in half at its Saint John paper mill and blamed rising electricity costs. Days after, utility executives disappointed MLAs by failing to complete a report on why bills to residential customers this winter have been so much higher than many expected.
Last week, following those controversies, Holt said her government had investigated whether it might be able to cancel, delay or reduce the coming increase but decided it was not legally feasible.
"We were looking at mechanisms to unravel the EUB decision, but there is not a lot at our disposal to affect April 1 right now," Holt said.
An urban consumer of N.B. Power who uses 16,000 kilowatt hours of electricity this year will pay $354.60 in monthly service charges, $2,361.60 for the volume of electricity consumed, and a "rate rider" of $65.60 to help pay for financial troubles the utility encountered in previous years, most notably for problems encountered at Point Lepreau.
All three of those amounts are higher than last year.
Rural customers are charged higher monthly service fees than urban customers and will pay an additional $34.56 per year.
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