N.B. Power won't seek higher rate hike over most recent Point Lepreau problems

New Brunswick's electric utility company says it won't immediately seek a higher rate hike in response to recent problems with its nuclear generating station that have already cost it millions.

N.B. Power won't be modifying its request to the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board seeking to raise its rates by a combined 19.4 per cent over two years, said N.B. Power lawyer John Furey, speaking on Monday as part of hearings on that very application.

And with no plan to amend the rate-hike request, Furey said N.B. Power will not be providing the board any further updates on the problems at the nuclear plant as part of the hearings on whether the increase should be approved.

Furey said N.B. Power's 2024-25 fiscal outlook projected "an improvement" of about $37 million, but poor hydroelectric performance this year has knocked that down by $10 million, while problems at Point Lepreau — assuming a scenario where it would have come back online in early September — knocked that outlook down by a further $51 million.

But Furey said the company's 2025-26 budget outlook also shows a $37 million improvement, leaving the company's two-year revenue projections close enough in line with the figures in its original rate hike application.

"So based on this September 7th date, [the problem at Point Lepreau] is not material when you look at it on a two-year basis, and of course with the rate-smoothing account, that is how N.B. Power would be requesting that the [Energy and Utilities] Board look at it," Furey said.

"The position [of N.B. Power] is that the board should not require a further update because that circumstance is close enough to the revenue requirements as filed."

Furey's comments on Monday reiterate the messaging in a letter sent by N.B. Power to the E.U.B. last Thursday.

That letter came at the same time N.B. Power issued a news release notifying that the Point Lepreau nuclear plant will  remain offline until mid-November, far longer than an earlier expectation it would be back online by Sep. 7.

N.B. Power took the plant offline in April for a planned $137-million maintenance job that was to last 100 days, but discovered other problems at the generating station during that work.

Last month, N.B. Power officials said the ongoing problems would keep the plant offline until Sep. 7 and cost the utility $71 million.

No further estimates have been provided on what it will cost to keep it offline until mid-November.

More than a decade of equipment failures and disappointing performance at the nuclear plant has left N.B. Power more than $5.3 billion in debt, with multi-billion dollar capital projects on its horizon.

The New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board is now hearing N.B. Power's request to raise rates by an average of 19.4 per cent over two years to begin fixing its financial problems. That would mean rates rise 9.25 per cent this year and another 9.25 per cent beginning next April.