{"id":13467,"date":"2026-09-10T09:18:04","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T12:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/?p=13467"},"modified":"2026-09-10T09:18:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T12:18:05","slug":"should-ns-power-earnings-be-performance-based","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/2026\/09\/10\/should-ns-power-earnings-be-performance-based\/","title":{"rendered":"Should NS Power Earnings be Performance Based?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Province is considering a new regulatory model for Nova Scotia Power to help improve affordability, reliability and accountability in Nova Scotia\u2019s electricity system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Legislation introduced today, September 9, outlines an independent review of performance-based regulation, an approach that ties a utility\u2019s earnings to its performance rather than its costs. The Nova Scotia Energy Board will lead the review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMany Nova Scotians are feeling the pressure of higher electricity costs, but don\u2019t feel they\u2019re getting good value for what they pay,\u201d said Premier Tim Houston, who is also the Minister of Energy. \u201cAs part of our work to modernize the electricity system and protect Nova Scotians, we want to examine whether changing how Nova Scotia Power earns its income will result in better service and greater accountability for Nova Scotians, our communities and a growing economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under the current cost-of-service model, Nova Scotia Power is allowed to recover approved operating costs, capital investments and a return on equity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The board\u2019s review will assess performance-based regulation, its potential benefits and risks, and how it could be adapted for Nova Scotia\u2019s system. The review will consider:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>the protection of ratepayers and the maintenance of reasonable rates<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>performance measures related to sustainable development, energy efficiency and emissions reductions<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>performance measures related to efficiency, cost-effectiveness, safety, reliability, resilience, innovation, customer service, quality of system operations, and management<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>impacts on different classes of customers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Nova Scotia Power\u2019s opportunity to earn a fair rate of return and how a new model would impact capital spending, cost recovery and risk.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nova Scotia Power has been tracking and reporting reliability and storm response performance measures data since 2016, providing good baseline data and experience for the review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The board will provide recommendations on design and implementation. Once the review is completed, the government will make a decision on performance-based regulation and determine the next steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The review process is expected to begin 30 days after the bill comes into force, and the final report will be made public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This review is another part of the government\u2019s plan to modernize the electricity system. Over the past five years, the Province has created the Independent Energy System Operator, advanced the Clean Power Plan and restructured the Nova Scotia Energy Board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Quick Facts:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>in conducting the review, the board may hold hearings, technical conferences or stakeholder sessions; receive evidence, submissions and expert reports; and retain experts<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>performance-based regulatory models are used by electricity utilities in jurisdictions including Ontario, Alberta, New York state, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and New Zealand<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>examples of reliability performance measures are frequency of outages, duration of outages, restoration times, major event response<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>the review will not change electricity rates or Nova Scotia Power\u2019s regulatory framework during the review period<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>performance-based regulation would not change how the utility directly passes fuel costs on to ratepayers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Additional Resources:<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bills tabled in the legislature are available at:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/nslegislature.ca\/legislative-business\/bills-statutes\/bills\/assembly-65-session-1\">https:\/\/nslegislature.ca\/legislative-business\/bills-statutes\/bills\/assembly-65-session-1<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nova Scotia\u2019s Clean Power Plan:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/novascotia.ca\/clean-power-plan\/\">https:\/\/novascotia.ca\/clean-power-plan\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nova Scotia Energy Board:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/nserbt.ca\/nseb\">https:\/\/nserbt.ca\/nseb<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Source: Provincial Release <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Province is considering a new regulatory model for Nova Scotia Power to help improve affordability, reliability and accountability in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10,12,13,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-general","category-latest","category-news","category-top-stories"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13467"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13469,"href":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13467\/revisions\/13469"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nnpress.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}