Power and politics
NB Power CEO pulling utility through the crucible

It’s the end of January as this story comes together and NB Power officials have, for months, faced heated public pushback on a proposed, new 500-megawatt (MW) natural gas power plant in Tantramar—the amalgamated municipality created in 2023, including the former town of Sackville. The plan to build the plant along rural Route 940 was formally announced in July 2025. The utility says the facility needs to be built immediately to avoid power shortages at times of peak demand by 2028. Hearings with the Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) are set for February, after the press dead-line for this piece. It’s a topical subject, but it’s not the only important issue NB Power is actively managing.

There are many decisions that have to be made in the near term that will impact the province’s energy system for decades to come. A second 600 MW gas plant is being considered as well as other renewable power generation projects. Costly refurbishments are needed for existing major assets including the Point Lepreau nuclear plant and Mactaquac hydro dam (the latter last estimated at $9 billion). Meanwhile, utility leaders must also respond to shifts in technology, markets and related legislation as well as regulation (think green-house gas controls as an example).

None of that work is isolated to New Brunswick’s needs alone. Active discussion on transmission infrastructure is being fueled in large part by regional planning and the Wind West power export initiative, driven by neighbouring Nova Scotia.

And it’s all happening while NB Power is subject to an ongoing Comprehensive Review; the final report—including high-level governance and policy recommendations for the provincial government—is scheduled for release in March, just after this piece is published. The review was launched with the goal of, among other things, identifying how this Crown-owned utility might start to meaningfully deal with almost $6 billion in debt, without overburdening local ratepayers.

Readiness and reliability

A core question for any utility is if it can reliably provide affordable power in the long-term. The Tantramar plant proposal, for example, is directly related to the utility’s capacity to meet demand.

Last fall, as part of a federal Impact Assessment Agency review of the project, 496 form letters created by the Sierra Club of Canada and signed by petitioners claimed the “plant is being rushed through the Impact assessment process.” Other submissions referred to “short-term thinking” by the utility. News outlets like the CBC and the Telegraph-Journal reported on demands for more consultation.

Meanwhile, in a separate report also released last fall, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) suggested, after reviewing peaks in demand and available power generation, that the Canadian Maritimes (including NB Power) doesn’t have enough “reserve margin” and is at risk of shortages. It echoes the utility’s own warnings about possible blackouts in just a couple of years, without the new gas plant.

The differing perspectives seem to indicate NB Power is either too precipitate in its push for development, or too slow to act and therefore failing on its mandate to reliably deliver power to its customers.

Within NB Power, however, there is confidence in the strength of their planning and risk assessment processes. Every three years, the utility prepares and releases an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), including detailed rationales around its generation needs. The last, in 2023, included demand scenarios and predicted a potential shortfall in power in the 2030s. Since then, however, the timeline was accelerated because of rapid population growth and increased demand for electrically powered heating, transportation, devices and more. Action on new power generation became more urgent.

 

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