The cost of power in Nova Scotia will increase in 2025 as a way to recover the costs endured from six expensive storms that hit the province in 2023.
Nova Scotia Power customers can expect an average increase of 1.4 per cent through what the hydro agency calls a storm cost recovery rider.
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In its application to the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board, Nova Scotia Power said:
“Nova Scotia’s weather is changing, bringing more intense storm events and increased wind speeds, which continue to stress the transmission and distribution system. Wind gusts exceeding 80 km/h increased from an average of 50 hours a year between 2001 and 2010, to 88 hours a year between 2011 and 2020, increasingly causing tree contacts and subsequent outages.”
(NATHAN COLEMAN) Tree damage Hurricane Lee Nova Scotia September 16 2023
Lee tree damage in September 2023. (Nathan Coleman/The Weather Network)
It said the number 1 cause of outages across the province is tree contacts to power lines. In 2023, Nova Scotia Power invested $32 million in vegetation management but in the same year experienced six “Level 3” storms.
Among them were:
There was a lightning and heavy rain event on July 22, the remnants of Hurricane Lee on Sept. 16,, as a slow-moving, post-tropical storm wind and rain event, Tropical Storm Philipe brought wind and rain on Oct. 7, and to cap it off in December, there was a Level 3 wind and rain event on the 11th and 18th, and a wind and mixed precipitation occurrence on the 21st.
Of those, Hurricane Lee was the most costly. It had a total expenditure of $19.3 million out of the additional $22 million that exceeded the $10.2-million target that had been approved as part of the 2023-24 general rate application.
The rate increase is expected to cover the roughly $24 million spent in excess on the storms.