Nova Scotia to create energy efficiency agency

Efficiency Nova Scotia Corporation will administer a ratepayer-funded efficiency fund, uniting electricity conservation, home audits, and energy rebates under Utility and Review Board oversight, with Nova Scotia Power managing programs until launch.

Electricity efficiency programs in Nova Scotia will be administered by a new, independent corporation under proposed legislation.

The Efficiency Nova Scotia Corporation will be responsible for a fund that will deliver electricity efficiency programs, such as home audits and EnerGuide rebates currently provided through Conserve Nova Scotia.

Bill Estabrooks, the minister responsible for Conserve Nova Scotia, said that agency will be scrapped in a move to make the electricity system more accountable for Nova Scotians, and many of its 15 employees will likely be hired by the new agency when it opens next spring.

Under the Electricity Reform Act framework, regulatory oversight of the corporation and its programs will be the responsibility of the province's Utility and Review Board. Until the new agency is in place, Nova Scotia Power will continue as the interim manager of electricity efficiency programs.

Don Regan, superintendent of the Berwick Electric Commission in the town of Berwick, said he's pleased that conservation programs for electricity and home heating will be united under one group.

"It's a good thing. We're happy to see it," he said. "We will be able to reduce energy use not only in terms of electricity, but in terms of home heating systems that are fuelled by oil or propane."

By the time the Efficiency Nova Scotia Corp. opens next spring, it will be two years after a public consultation recommended an independent administrator take responsibility for helping businesses and people cut their power use, even as electricity prices were expected to remain stable in 2015.

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