N.B. Power's request for an 8.9 per cent rate increase enters its final phase in Fredericton today with closing arguments in front of the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board. Stiff opposition, led principally by J.D. Irving Ltd., has left the outcome in some doubt.
Opponents of N.B. Power's proposed 8.9 per cent rate increase say updated financial estimates filed at its ongoing rate hearing over the objections of the utility prove most of the increase is not needed. A two per cent change would be enough, they say.
An American utility expert who has been sounding alarms about N.B. Power's finances for several years told its rate hearing on Tuesday he initially could not grasp how much worse things have gotten this year.
Electricity customers, not N.B. Power, will be responsible to pay as much as $70 million in costs for extended outages at two important generating stations this winter if the losses are not offset in the next few months by some kind of financial windfall at the utility.