N.B. Power's proposal to do away with separate urban and rural service charge rates would mean a 15 per cent monthly increase for some customers.
That proposal was spurred by New Brunswick's local governance reform, according to N.B. Power staff appearing before the province's Energy and Utilities Board last week.
N.B. Power rate design specialist Veronique Stevenson said those within municipal boundaries before those reforms took effect in January 2023 are now paying a cheaper urban rate.
While those brought into municipal boundaries in 2023 would technically fall into that same urban category, Stevenson said those households are still paying the more expensive rural rate. N.B.
Power has missed its profit targets in each of the last four years by a combined $252 million. This year it has informed both the Energy and Utilities Board and the Department of Finance that profits are running ahead of its budget projection. (Radio-Canada) That's because transferring those households over to the urban rate would mean a considerable revenue loss for the utility, she said.
The Crown corporation's general rate application lists the existing urban and rural rates as $24.57 and $26.96 per month, respectively.
It also has a "seasonal" category, which is also charged $26.96 per month. N.
B. Power proposes to merge the categories to a uniform rate of $28.97.
But that would mean a 15.1 per cent increase to the monthly service rate, or $3.70, for about 51 per cent of customers – those who wo.