NSPML's expert witness filed rebuttal testimony arguing that planned and forced LIL outages during the 2023–2024 compliance period reflect good utility practice and exceptional circumstances, and that the Holdback Mechanism should be terminated.

M12696 · NSP Maritime Link Inc. (NSPML) - Application to Review the Holdback Mechanism

AI summary

Concentric Energy Advisors CEO Danielle S. Powers filed rebuttal evidence (Exhibit N-11) on behalf of NSP Maritime Link Inc responding to Bates White Economic Consulting (Board Counsel's expert), arguing that all parties — including Bates White and Consumer Advocate consultant John D. Wilson — agree NSPML satisfied the Other "Reduction in Undelivered Volumes" threshold, with net outstanding undelivered NS Block energy falling to 9% of annual contract volume by March 2024, below the Board's 10% cap.
The sole remaining dispute centres on the "Consistent Deliveries" threshold (≥90% of the NS Block received in each of 12 consecutive months); Powers argues that Bates White never actually concluded NSPML failed this test — only that the good utility practice and exceptional circumstances analysis is subjective — and that Bates White's expert Mr. Musco is not an engineer and offered no independent engineering assessment of outage causation.
Powers rebuts Bates White's critique of four outage events (July 2023 planned post-commissioning outage; September 2023 coordinated annual maintenance outage; March 2024 planned corrective maintenance outage; March/April 2024 forced outage from severe icing), contending each is consistent with good utility practice or constitutes an exceptional circumstance, and that absent those outages, monthly deliveries would have exceeded the 90% threshold throughout the compliance period — a point Bates White itself concedes.
Powers disputes Bates White's reliance on the Haldar Report as evidence of LIL design deficiency, noting the report is a reliability assessment rather than a prudence review, that NLH's own February 2022 filing characterised the extreme-loading concerns as affecting approximately 2% of LIL structures, and that identifying future improvements does not establish that the original design violated accepted engineering standards.
Powers concludes that the purpose of the Holdback Mechanism has been achieved — deferred energy has been eliminated, customers have received the NS Block benefits, and the Board's 2026 NSEB 10 decision (M12394, ¶188) already found that Maritime Link risks "appear to have been mitigated and well managed" — and recommends the Board approve termination of the Holdback effective April 2024.

Disclaimer: This summary was generated by AI from the filings it describes. We take care to make it accurate, but errors are possible - and it isn't advice. Only the filings themselves are the record: if you're relying on something here, confirm it against the source documents or the Nova Scotia Energy Board's own record. Full disclaimer →

What was filed

Documents filed on this day

N-11 Rebuttal Evidence - NSPML exhibits