Lawyer questions NSP wind plan

Consumer advocate wants to know how project cost will affect ratepayers

Nova Scotia's electricity consumer advocate is questioning Nova Scotia Power's proposal to spend $120 million on a wind farm.

"Is it a good deal?" asks Halifax lawyer John Merrick. "Because ultimately it has to be paid for by ratepayers."

The power company has applied to government regulators for permission to build and develop a 22-turbine wind farm at Nuttby Mountain, Colchester County.

Before the Utility and Review Board makes a decision on the wind farm application, it is requesting written questions and comments from interested parties.

Mr. Merrick wants answers to a lot of tough questions about the economics of the project and how it will impact NSP customers' power bills.

"It should certainly be power that's produced at a competitive cost for ratepayers. We're looking at it with care and skepticism. One should always have a healthy degree of skepticism," Mr. Merrick said Tuesday.

The deadline is Friday for NSP to respond to the hundreds of questions filed by the consumer advocate and Nova Scotia businesses and government departments.

Besides concerns about whether the project is a good deal for NSP's 470,000 customers, Mr. Merrick questions whether the power monopoly should be getting involved in the renewable energy business.

Provincial legislation introduced in January 2007 ordered the power company to increase generation from independent producers to five per cent by 2010 or face a fine of $500,000 a day.

"This renewable energy initiative was going to open the doors for third parties to come in with various proposals. Now we discover that the camel coming through the front door was the camel we thought we weren't going to see coming in through that door," said Mr. Merrick.

NSP stated in its application the wind farm would provide a net present value of $7.3 million that would benefit customers. Mr. Merrick is requesting the firm's analysis to prove this statement.

"We're taking a very focused look at this proposal," he said.

Three months ago, government regulators rejected a request by NSP to buy $60-million worth of biomass-generated electricity from a partnership of NewPage Port Hawkesbury and Strait Bio-Gen.

"We just went through the biomass application, which has a lot of questions as to whether it was good for ratepayers, and it didn't go anywhere. It may be alive somewhere in the backwoods," said Mr. Merrick.

Located about 20 kilometres north of Truro, the project would include purchasing and erecting the turbines and constructing a new substation and transmission lines.

Last April, NSP bought the Nuttby Mountain wind farm from its struggling developer EarthFirst Canada Inc. in an attempt to move the project forward and help the utility meet its environmental targets of reducing pollution.

NSP is seeking approval of the project by Dec. 1. In the meantime, the board has given permission for the power company to order the turbines and begin construction.