NB Power says Lepreau repair won't change $20M rate hike application

NB Power says it does not intend to amend its application for a $20 million rate hike this year even though an unplanned outage at the Point Lepreau nuclear station is eating up all of the revenue the increase was meant to generate.

"This outage will not impact the rate application for 15/16," said NB spokesperson Deborah Nobes in an e-mail to CBC News,

Point Lepreau has been on an unscheduled shut down since March 19 when a refueling machine jammed during operation on the face of the reactor. The utility has fixed that problem but an unrelated repair to pumps that move heat from the reactor to the plant's non-nuclear boilers has taken much longer than expected.

The latest estimate is the plant will be down until Monday at a "minimum," which will extend the outage to at least 31 days. NB Power has said outages at Lepreau cost it about $1 million a day in lost production, losses that will eat up all of a revenue increase the utility has been counting on to cut its significant debt load.

In June NB Power is scheduled to begin hearings on a request for a $20.4 million rate increase. According to the request, filed well before Lepreau's latest problems last fall, the increase "is required to allow NB Power to generate the earnings necessary to continue the process of reducing debt."

However, Nobes says the outage will not alter the amount NB Power is asking for.

Government-appointed public intervener Heather Black says there has been no hint yet that Lepreau's current shutdown will force NB Power to ask for even higher rates come June, but she says because bills pile up fast when Lepreau goes down, it's something to watch for.

"It's too early to tell if what we're looking at with this unplanned outage is going to become something material or significant but it is certainly worth keeping an eye on," said Black.

NB Power had budgeted for a $91 million profit this year — before Lepreau went down — and can absorb the cost of some problems without raising rates, but not indefinitely.