Nova Scotia rates to jump 5.6 per cent

subscribe

Nova Scotians will pay 5.66 per cent more for electricity in 2011, after the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board approved the increase.

On January 1 residential ratepayers will see a 5.66 per cent increase in their light bills — about 3.5 per cent to Nova Scotia Power and the rest to an energy conservation program.

Nova Scotia Power says it needs the increase to cover the costs of buying cleaner, more expensive coal, and had originally asked for an immediate 9 per cent increase.

The regulator said in its decision that it accepted the utility's costs as accurate, but Nova Scotia Power will have to go with staggered rate increases over the next three years.

During hearings, some intervenors said that many customers would have seen a more than 10 per cent jump in rates next year.

Industrial customers will see their rates increase almost 7 per cent, while commercial rates will rise 6.2 per cent.

How big the rates hikes will be in 2012 and 2013 will depend on the cost of fuel.

Related News

Germany - A needed nuclear option for climate change

BERLIN - Peel away the politics and the passion, the doomsaying and the denialism, and climate change largely boils down to this: energy. To avoid the chances of catastrophic climate change while ensuring the world can continue to grow — especially for poor people who live in chronically energy-starved areas — we’ll need to produce ever more energy from sources that emit little or no greenhouse gases.

It’s that simple — and, of course, that complicated.

Zero-carbon sources of renewable energy like wind and solar have seen tremendous increases in capacity and equally impressive decreases in price in recent years, while the…

READ MORE
germany-call-for-hydrogen-ready-power-plants

Germany's Call for Hydrogen-Ready Power Plants

READ MORE

clean electricity standard

Reconciliation and a Clean Electricity Standard

READ MORE

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Dwight Ball

N.L. premier says Muskrat Falls costs are too great for optimism about benefits

READ MORE

work from home

Residential electricity use -- and bills -- on the rise thanks to more working from home

READ MORE