Maritime Link requests $163.5 million from NS Power to recover construction costs in 2024

Nova Scotia Power Maritime Link, a subsidiary of Nova Scotia Power has requested the provincial utility regulator to approve a request to receive $163.5 million in 2024 from Nova Scotia Power and to allow the utility to recover the costs from its ratepayers.

The application says the costs would go to continuing work to operate and maintain the Maritime Link, a 170-kilometre sub-sea and overland cable that connects southwestern Newfoundland and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

Nova Scotia Power says construction of the Maritime Link was completed in 2017 and the first shipment of hydroelectric energy delivered to the Nova Scotia block of energy took place in August 2021.

"By replacing high-carbon generation with clean hydroelectric energy, the Maritime Link saved Nova Scotia customers nearly $100 million in 2022 and will continue to deliver significant value for decades," said Nova Scotia Power in a statement to CTV News.

According to the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, the hydroelectricity from Muskrat Falls delivered to Nova Scotia would produce up to 20 per cent of Nova Scotia's' power needs.

"The Maritime Link plays a role in meeting our climate change goals," said Tory Rushton, minister of natural resources and renewables.

"We already have some wind, local hydro and other renewables on the grid," said Rushton. "With the addition of clean energy from Newfoundland through the Maritime Link, we're now up to about half of our electricity from renewables."

The $163.5 million requests from NSP Maritime Link to Nova Scotia Power is just less than the $163.5 million the utility paid to the NSPML last year.

The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (NSUARB) approved and allowed Nova Scotia Power to recover those costs from ratepayers.

It's anticipated this application process will be done annually for the next 35 years, as the NSUARB IN 2022 approved the recovery of $1.7 billion, the total cost of the Maritime Link, from NS Power to cover the cost of the hydroelectricity project.

For ratepayers and small businesses like Gerry Lonergan, increasing power rates are major stress on his business but the cost of doing business while turning away from old ways of generating power, like burning coal and other fossil fuels.

"We're using a lot of electricity (to run our bakery) and our power bills are one of our major expenses," said Lonergan who pays on average $1,600 in power fees. "But without power, we can't turn on the lights and we can't turn on the ovens. So we are very fixed on those prices and we depend on those prices staying where they are. Otherwise, we have to change the price of our products."

The hydroelectricity generated from the Maritime Link will help Nova Scotia reach its climate targets said Rushton and the province is in the process of finding other prospective energy developers who are looking to add to the province's stock by developing wind or solar on their own.

"We are on track to exceed our goals to get off coal and have 80% renewables by 2030 – both in terms of the number of renewables and how fast we get them on the grid," said Rushton. "In fact, by the end of 2030, we anticipate having about 88% of our electricity from renewables. There will be no coal in the mix."

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