AI-generated summary
· Application · 04/21/2026
NSEB convenes full hearing day on Nova Scotia Power's $284 million 2026 Annual Capital Expenditure Plan, with intervenors probing asset management practices, outage drivers, and project cost overruns.
AI summary
- The April 21, 2026 hearing (revised and refiled May 20, 2026) featured cross-examination of an NSP panel by counsel for the Consumer Advocate (Murphy), Small Business Advocate (Powell), Industrial Group (Rudderham), and IESO Nova Scotia (Mahody) on the $284 million Capital Expenditures plan.
- Intervenor counsel Murphy questioned NSP on growing risks identified in the Path to 2030 Report, including delays in fast-acting generation and attrition of Green Choice projects, raising concerns about System Reliability and Integrated Resource Plan alignment.
- Cross-examination revealed that tree contacts account for approximately 33 percent of customer hours of interruption, with NSP estimating up to 40 percent of adverse-weather outages are also attributable to tree contacts — a central justification for vegetation management capital spending under Distribution.
- The Small Business Advocate's counsel (Powell) identified a significant budget-versus-actual discrepancy for at least one project (budgeted at ~$10 million, actual at ~$21 million), pressing NSP on the drivers of that overspend and the reconciliation between application figures and IR responses, touching on Prudence Reviews and Asset Management.
- IESO Nova Scotia's counsel (Mahody) conducted extensive cross-examination on the installation of live-line switches and their expected reduction of outage durations (estimated at one to eight hours per switching event), probing the evidentiary basis for Grid Modernization investments and the adequacy of NSP's data collection practices.
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What was filed
Documents filed on this day
- 20260421-1 Hearing Transcript — 04/21/2026 (Revised Transcript - Refiled May 20, 2026)