{"id":64454,"date":"2024-07-26T10:23:55","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T17:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/energi.media\/?p=64454"},"modified":"2024-07-26T10:23:55","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T17:23:55","slug":"nova-scotia-races-for-coal-exit-amid-billions-in-costs-and-energy-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/energi.media\/news\/nova-scotia-races-for-coal-exit-amid-billions-in-costs-and-energy-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"Nova Scotia races for coal exit amid billions in costs and energy challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was published by The Energy Mix<\/a> on July 25, 2024.<\/em><\/p>\n

By Jennifer Henderson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Nova Scotia has less than six years to shed its centuries-long dependence on coal, a deadline that comes with a price tag in the billions of dollars.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, continuing to burn coal has become not only untenable in a rapidly warming world, but also unaffordable as prices of the dirty fuel skyrocket.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to take a village to get this done,\u201d Nova Scotia Power President Peter Gregg told a legislative committee in April. His platitude referred to Nova Scotia\u2019s legislated goal of shuttering all coal plants and transitioning to 80 per cent renewable sources of energy by 2030. Gregg, the C$1.7-million man<\/a>\u00a0leading the shareholder-owned power company, and Karen Gatien, Nova Scotia\u2019s deputy minister of natural resources and renewables, promised the attending politicians that this remains \u201can achievable goal\u201d.<\/p>\n

Today, renewable sources like wind and imported hydroelectricity make up 43 per cent of NS Power\u2019s energy mix. Coal and petcoke<\/a>\u00a0still\u00a0<\/a>account for<\/a> 36 per cent of the total, down from 60 per cent 20 years ago, which gives the utility bragging rights to \u201cone of the fastest transitions to green energy\u201d in Canada.<\/p>\n

But when it comes to the ambitious goal of moving to 80 per cent renewables in under six years, \u201cfar and away, this is the hardest\u201d, said the executive director of clean energy at the Nova Scotia department of natural resources, Keith Collins, a civil servant who has wrestled with decarbonization in Ontario, the United Kingdom, and Manitoba. His assessment was blunt: \u201cNova Scotia is hanging off the end of the continental grid and the gas grid,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s got one million people, it doesn\u2019t have high incomes, it doesn\u2019t have its own hydroelectricity. Fix that!\u201d<\/p>\n

To wean off coal by 2030 \u201cis genuinely a huge challenge for the province\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n

Electricity consumers in the province have seen their bills rise 14 per cent over the past two years and data reveals that 40 per cent of Nova Scotians are considered \u201cenergy poor\u201d\u2014defined by Statistics Canada as spending more than 6 per cent of after-tax income on heat and lights.<\/p>\n

Lisa Hayhurst, a member of a tenant advocacy group pushing for a power bill discount for low-income households, said it\u2019s too expensive to heat her one-bedroom 1980s-built apartment. \u201cThe windows and insulation are of poor quality, meaning it is very cold in the winter and very hot in the summer,\u201d Hayhurst said.<\/p>\n

Though her apartment has four metal baseboard heaters, she can only afford to use one. \u201cEven just using that one heater sporadically during the winter, I can have an energy bill of $300 to $400 for two months,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The more than C$600 million Ottawa and the province are\u00a0<\/a>spending<\/a>\u00a0to help people install heat pumps and improve the energy efficiency of their homes is one way to prevent greater rate shock in the future, said David Miller, Nova Scotia\u2019s executive lead for electricity. \u201cWhat really matters is the overall energy bill for a household,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to move the needle on that\u2014not just by changing how electricity is priced but by focusing on how people consume energy generally, whether that\u2019s heating oil, gasoline for their vehicles, or how they heat their homes and hot water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nova Scotians face two major challenges as 2030 nears: Getting off coal, and doing so without triggering a surge in power rates.<\/p>\n

A Chronic Coal Dependence<\/h2>\n

Nova Scotia\u2019s coal history dates back to the 1700s, when it was mined at Louisbourg by French settlers. But most of Cape Breton\u2019s coal mines have been closed for decades. What remains are the power plants that coal spawned, leaving a legacy of pollution and high fuel costs for Nova Scotians who are still importing the fossil fuel and paying a hefty premium for it.<\/p>\n

Time and again, planned coal alternatives have under-delivered to Nova Scotians.<\/p>\n

The massive generating station at Muskrat Falls, which delivers hydroelectric power to the island of Newfoundland via a transmission line called the Labrador Island Link (LIL), also sends electricity to Nova Scotia through a $1.7-billion subsea cable called the Maritime Link. But due to software problems with the LIL,\u00a0 the first hydro delivery to Nova Scotia arrived four years late and was only a fraction of what was specified in the\u00a0<\/a>35-year contract<\/a>\u00a0between the two provincial utilities.<\/p>\n

So from January 2018 until the line was officially commissioned in 2023, NS Power was forced to buy expensive coal to replace the cheap hydro, driving up fuel costs. Since this February, make-up deliveries have been averaging 175 per cent, but still, the original target of displacing 20 per cent of fossil fuels with Labrador hydro is not being met. NS Power communications advisor Hannah Langille said in an email that year-to-date deliveries from Muskrat Falls displace about 17 per cent, and the company expects it will be 2025 before 20 per cent is achieved.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s frustrating, it costs us money, but we can\u2019t \u2018magic\u2019 that,\u201d Keith Collins told the legislative committee in April.<\/p>\n

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston\u2019s government\u00a0slapped<\/a> a C$10-million fine on NS Power for being late to meet a legislated target of generating 40 per cent of electricity from renewables despite a three-year deadline extension. The utility is appealing the fine.<\/p>\n

The Muskrat Falls situation raises further concerns when corporate relationships come to light. NS Power is owned by Emera Inc., a publicly traded company generating profits for shareholders. Until this June, Emera was also an investor and 40 per cent owner of the glitchy LIL.<\/p>\n

This gave rise to hypothetical (but far-fetched) scenarios where NS Power might sue its parent for driving up costs to ratepayers. Instead, Emera sold its equity interest in the LIL for $1.19 billion. In a May 28 news release\u00a0<\/a>announcing<\/a>\u00a0the deal, Emera said it would use the cash to pay down debt and \u201cand support its investment opportunities in its regulated utility businesses.\u201d It owns regulated companies in Florida, New Mexico, Nova Scotia, and three Caribbean countries.<\/p>\n

Rising Coal Costs<\/h2>\n

As for coal prices, people elsewhere in the world have been facing rate hikes of 100 to 150 per cent because of Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, Collins said. \u201cWe are still in it: Coal today is still at $130 a tonne, two to three times what it cost in 2015-2016\u201d.<\/p>\n

This double whammy of late hydro and rising coal prices has led to a build-up of unpaid fuel costs, which in 2023 hit nearly $400 million for NS Power and, by extension, its consumers.<\/p>\n

Iain Rankin, a member of the legislature and the former Liberal premier from 2021-22, expressed disappointment with NS Power\u2019s plan to keep all eight coal units operating until 2026. \u201cHow much will these higher coal prices cost ratepayers?\u201d, asked Rankin. Nova Scotia\u2019s deputy minister of natural resources was unable to provide an estimate. Rankin said that when he was premier, NS Power had a timeline for retiring three of the eight coal-fired units prior to 2030. That is no longer the case.<\/p>\n

NS Power\u2019s president has said that coal plants can\u2019t be \u201cphased out\u201d until new sources of renewable energy come online. \u201cIt will take significant investments on behalf of Nova Scotians to achieve this,\u201d said Gregg, signaling power bills will rise.<\/p>\n

New power sources like wind won\u2019t be available before 2028-2029 at the earliest, and getting there will require an attitude adjustment among people opposed to big projects, said deputy minister Gatien. \u201cI think there is a belief, \u2018Why can\u2019t they just go somewhere that wants them?\u2019 And I don\u2019t know where that place is, to be frank,\u201d Gatien said. \u201cWhat we have here in Nova Scotia is wind\u2014great wind, both onshore and offshore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s OUR big hydroelectric project\u2026we are way too reliant on (fossil fuel) commodities where prices change \u2026 but it is going to take Nova Scotians to understand and accept that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Zero-Coal Game Plan<\/h2>\n

The province\u00a0<\/a>published<\/a>\u00a0its\u00a0<\/a>clean power plan<\/a>\u00a0[pdf]\u00a0<\/em>to abandon coal last October, prioritizing wind, solar, batteries, electrification and load management. The plan is aligned with NS Power\u2019s \u201cPath to 2030\u201d. Neither document includes a cost estimate for getting off coal.<\/p>\n

Both plans required updates after the dumping of the $9 billion Atlantic Loop proposal to build an overhead power line to import Quebec\u2019s\u00a0<\/a>increasingly limited<\/a> hydroelectric power to the Maritimes. Without that project, Ottawa was reminded that with just 3 per cent of the population and 55 per cent of the country\u2019s coal-fired emissions, Nova Scotia would \u201cneed federal help\u201d to close its coal plants by 2030. Houston was quick to point out that during the last federal election campaign, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau\u00a0provided $5.2 billion<\/a>\u00a0to keep Newfoundland and Labrador ratepayers\u2019 bills from doubling after construction costs on Muskrat Falls soared exponentially.<\/p>\n

Last October, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson agreed to help Nova Scotia. \u201cAfter months of acrimony between the two levels of government and terse comments shared through letters and news conferences, politicians struck a collaborative and positive tone,\u201d\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0CBC News\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0at the time.<\/p>\n

Instead of the larger loop, Ottawa will help fund a second or twin transmission line between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to carry power from future renewable energy projects. (An existing line has been operating at full capacity for years.) The new intertie would be operational by 2028 at an\u00a0estimated cost of $800 million<\/a>\u00a0for the Nova Scotia portion, with the cost shared among the utilities and the Canada Infrastructure Bank, according to Emera President and CEO Scott Balfour. There is also talk of extending the line to import nuclear-generated electricity from Point Lepreau, New Brunswick.<\/p>\n

And in addition to investing hundreds of millions of dollars to help Nova Scotians buy heat pumps, the feds contributed tens of millions to Mi\u2019kmaw communities for eight early-stage wind farms. Last month, NS Power received approval to build a\u00a0$354-million network<\/a>\u00a0of grid-scale battery storage systems after the project received $115.6 million from Ottawa.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, NS Power has set up a decarbonization deferral account to spread out the cost of paying for the coal-fired power plants as they become \u201cstranded assets\u201d on the utility\u2019s books. Although that price tag remains confidential, the dollar cost will be in the hundreds of millions\u2014and that\u2019s not the only bill.<\/p>\n

Next Steps<\/h2>\n

Next January, Nova Scotia ratepayers will begin shouldering the $400 million in accumulated fuel costs over the past five years. In\u00a0a rare move<\/a>, the provincial regulator is allowing NS Power to transfer $117 million to the provincial government, which will amortize the debt over 10 years to head off a 5.6 per cent rate increase for consumers and a potential credit downgrade for the power company.<\/p>\n

As the province prepares to add a total of 1,500 megawatts of wind energy to the grid, the Point Tupper coal-fired generating station will be converted to gas to avoid future power outages. A few other coal-fired units will be permitted to burn heavy fuel oil as back-up during storms and emergencies well past 2030.<\/p>\n

As for Nova Scotia\u2019s long-term goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, Gregg says potential components include the development of offshore wind turbines and hydrogen fuel to replace gas at one coal-fired power plant. Both emerging technologies are dependent on governments establishing regulations so they can co-exist without harm to fisheries.<\/p>\n

After a very public fight between the provincial government and NS Power over rising power rates, both are now \u201caligned\u201d on achieving 80 per cent renewables by 2030\u2014a highly aspirational deadline even without considering the global supply chain issues and labour shortages faced by renewable energy projects.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was published by The Energy Mix on July 25, 2024. By Jennifer Henderson Nova Scotia has less than six years to shed its centuries-long dependence on coal, a deadline that comes with a [Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":64455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[103,528,41,14,95,1807,729],"class_list":{"0":"post-64454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-electricity","9":"tag-electrification","10":"tag-energy","11":"tag-featured","12":"tag-fossil-fuels","13":"tag-nova-scotia","14":"tag-utilities"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\ncoal - Thoughtful Journalism About Energy's Future<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nova Scotia has less than six years to shed its dependence on coal, a deadline that comes with a price tag in the billions of dollars.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/energi.media\/news\/nova-scotia-races-for-coal-exit-amid-billions-in-costs-and-energy-challenges\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"coal - 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