Extended Point Lepreau shutdown will cost Prince Edward Islanders, eventually

Further delays in the re-opening of the Point Lepreau nuclear generating station in southern New Brunswick is costing Maritime Electric money, and at some point that cost will be passed on to its P.E.I. customers.

When Lepreau is offline, Maritime Electric has to buy additional power to make up for the 30 megawatts P.E.I. is supposed to get from the plant, amounting to about 15 per cent of the Island's total power needs. When Lepreau was shut down in 2022, that additional power cost Maritime Electric about $67,000 a day.

In addition, as part of its participation agreement with N.B. Power regarding Point Lepreau, Maritime Electric has to pay 4.55 per cent of the station's repair and maintenance costs. 

Maritime Electric's rates are regulated by the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission, and adjustments to account for unforeseen costs are made through something called the Energy Cost Adjustment Mechanism, or ECAM. It allows for differences between the forecast and actual energy costs to be tracked, and then either recovered from or refunded to customers.

A shutdown of Lepreau was accounted for in Maritime Electric's last rate application with IRAC, but it was forecast for only 50 days. The plant was closed for regular maintenance in early April in an outage that was expected to last 100 days.

Then problems were found in the main generator, and the exact issue is still undiagnosed. Point Lepreau is now not expected to be back online until mid-November at the earliest.

That's closer to 225 days, which could cost the utility almost $12 million more than forecast — and that doesn't include its share of the repair cost.

In an emailed statement to CBC News, the provincial government said those costs would not likely be incorporated into the rates power consumers pay until the company applies for a general rate increase in 2026.

Maritime Electric has multiple applications for rate increases already waiting for approval by IRAC, including one to cover the $37 million it cost to restore power after post-tropical storm Fiona in 2022.

CBC reached out to Maritime Electric Monday seeking further information for this story, but as of Wednesday the company had not provided a response.

In response to a similar query in March, before Lepreau was shut down, the utility said the cost of the outage would be determined upon completion of the work.