N.B. Power report based on 'facts and evidence,' auditors tell MLAs

Auditors who examined an apparent winter spike in N.B. Power bills have persuaded one opposition party that meters are working properly — but another party still has doubts.

The two senior auditors from KPMG Canada spent almost three hours Thursday fielding questions from MLAs about their conclusions that the utility's residential meters accurately measured the electricity customers were consuming.

"Our work was focused on facts and evidence and data and analytics-based work. It was robust and it was thorough," said Andrea Coish, an auditor and managing partner of KPMG's Halifax office.

Jack Martin, a KPMG expert in forensic data analytics, told the public accounts committee that "there's no evidence that either conventional meters or smart meters were overstating the power consumption of New Brunswick Power residential customers." 

They said it was up to N.B. Power to look at why some ratepayers were consuming more electricity than they believed.

The anecdotal evidence of unexplained spikes in January power bills put the Holt Liberal government on the defensive last winter, prompting it to call in KPMG.

The auditors examined 400 cases of bill spikes — enough to provide a statistically accurate picture of all customers, Martin said.

The report backed N.B. Power's initial explanation that a cold winter, a longer December billing period and a major rate increase — which may have passed unnoticed until winter — combined to jolt customers with high bills.

At least one Liberal MLA said he was convinced.

"We need to stick to the facts and the fact was, on the 400-plus meters, there was nothing wrong about that," Hautes-Terres-Nepisiguit Liberal MLA Luc Robichaud told reporters.

Green Party Leader David Coon, who had raised questions about the accuracy of some N.B. Power bills, said he was persuaded by the presentation.

"My view is that the report, after all the questioning, finds that the system is functioning properly for New Brunswickers in terms of making sure that the bills they're being given reflect their actual consumption," he said.

"I'm confident that's the case now." 

But Progressive Conservative energy critic Kris Austin said he believes some New Brunswickers will remain unpersuaded because KPMG relied on meter data collected by N.B. Power's own meter testers.