Tardy EUB application delays NB Power rate hike

Running air conditioners in New Brunswick this month will cost the same as last month thanks to power rates in the province notincreasing today as NB Power had hoped.

The utility has asked permission to raise its rates an average of 2.5 per cent, including 2.9 per cent on residential customers. It originally wanted them in place for April 1 or, as a secondary target, July 1.

However, the application was made so late to the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board both of those start dates have been missed, something EUB chairperson Raymond Gorman warned about as he opened hearings on the application earlier this year.

"The Board is concerned about the timing of this hearing," Gorman said.

"The current application was filed more than three months after it ideally should have been. As a result, any rates approved by the Board will come into effect long after the intended implementation date."

That next likely window for an increase would be Aug. 1, the same date NB Power had its increases take effect last year.

The current rate request went through a full hearing in the spring that ended May 28, but there were a number of controversial issues and the EUB has still not reached a decision on whether it will approve all, part or none of the increase NB Power applied for.

A lawyer for New Brunswick municipal utilities and public intervenor Heather Black both criticized the 2.9 per cent proposed increase on residential customers as too high and asked it to be scaled back.

Black also called on the EUB to disallow NB Power's request for $1.1 million in funds to prepare for the adoption of smart meters since the EUB rejected NB Power's smart meter plan last year and has not yet approved a new plan,

"There is still no assurance that the approval (for smart meters) will be given at all, let alone whether it will be given by January 2020," said Black.

If the EUB disallows the expenditure, it will lower the rate increase by an equivalent $1.1 million amount.

During the hearing, NB Power estimated it would lose nearly $600,000 per week in revenue for every week the rate increase was delayed past April 1.