Board expert Dr. Sean Cleary filed 11 technical information requests challenging Concentric Energy Advisors' ROE methodology in Nova Scotia Power's 2026-2027 General Rate Application.

M12451 · Nova Scotia Power Inc. - 2026 General Rate Application (GRA)

AI summary

IRs 1 through 11 (Exhibit 99739) were issued October 21, 2025 by Dr. Sean Cleary, CFA, targeting Concentric Energy Advisors Appendix 10A of the Nova Scotia Power 2026-2027 General Rate Application, with requests directed to Senior Director of Regulatory Affairs Blake Williams.
IRs 2, 3, and 6 challenge the composition and consistency of Concentric's proxy groups across proceedings, noting that the North American Electric T&D proxy group used in the NS Power GRA (10 U.S. utilities) shares no U.S. members with the NSPML 2026 Assessment proxy group (3 U.S. utilities), and that the CAPM beta estimate for the NS Power group (0.90) is nearly 50% higher than the NSPML group (0.64), driving a 1.5% gap in CAPM Return On Equity estimates (10.32% vs. 8.82%).
IRs 7 through 10 scrutinize Concentric's Discounted Cash Flow and CAPM inputs, including use of sell-side EPS growth forecasts (5.50%–6.76%) that substantially exceed nominal GDP growth assumptions (4.04%–4.14%), adjusted rather than raw beta estimates, forecast rather than actual 30-year government bond yields as the risk-free rate, and Market Risk Premium estimates (Canada: 5.68%; U.S.: 7.17%) that Dr. Cleary asserts are materially higher than the Dimson et al. (2016) benchmarks.
IR 4 references a confirmed +0.40% upward bias in forecast-based long-term debt rates established during the 2024 Ontario Energy Board EB-2024-0063 proceeding, asking Concentric to justify continued reliance on forecasted rather than actual 30-year Canada bond yields.
IR 11 challenges Concentric's risk premium analysis for relying on approved regulatory ROEs from other jurisdictions rather than market-based data, and for failing to incorporate observable utility credit spreads, arguing these inputs do not reflect NS Power's utility-specific business risks.

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What was filed

Documents filed on this day

99739 Dr. Cleary (NSPI) IR 1 to 11 other_documents