Former utility manager Tim Hicks

A former senior manager with one of the largest electricity companies in the U.S. says NB Power should not be pushing a 500 MW gas plant as a solution to its energy needs.

“There are ideas for the environment that are better than building a gas, obviously carbon-based combustion power plant,” Tim Hicks said during a presentation to Tantramar Town Council on Tuesday.

“I worked as a senior manager for Southern California Edison in grid modernization. I gained a lot of knowledge there. I’d like to share a little bit of that with you,” he said.

Hicks returned home to Sackville three years ago after spending many years out of the country. He joined the local group Seniors for Climate Change – Tantramar after learning about the proposed gas plant on the Chignecto Isthmus.

He told council there are better solutions to meeting energy needs including what’s known as “time-of-use” or “time of day” power rates that would encourage NB Power customers to save money by shifting some of their electricity consumption to times when there’s less demand on the grid.

“At night, there’s very little power consumption,” he said, adding that about 20 years ago, for example, utilities in Ontario and California introduced cheaper, variable rates to encourage customers to run appliances such as dishwashers or clothes dryers during the night-time hours or very early in the morning.

“Typically, between 4 and 9 in the evening is when everybody’s consuming power,” he explained, and rates then could be more expensive, something like 28 cents per kilowatt hour while rates from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m. could be around 15 to 18 cents.

The real savings could come during the night-time hours (9 p.m. to 7 a.m) when he said NB Power could charge only six cents per kilowatt hour.

NB Power out of date

Smart meter. Photo: NB Power

“My question is why is it acceptable for NB Power to be more than 20 years or almost 20 years behind in this technology, in this simple solution and now they’re rushing to build a power plant,” he said.

Hicks said he understands why New Brunswickers are reluctant to sign up for the so-called “smart meters” that are needed to implement “time of use” pricing.

“There is a history of blunder after blunder after blunder and I can understand why the public has not trusted NB Power and maybe why they’ve delayed this because they oppose smart meters because they don’t trust NB Power to implement properly,” he said.

“An electric company has a monopoly. They own the wires and they own the towers,” he added, pointing to a conflict-of-interest when utilities generate and sell their own power.

“In California, they removed the power production from the business of providing electricity. They removed that conflict of interest, plus they incentivized power production to be green.”

Council support

Councillor Allison Butcher

“I think you’re kind of preaching to the choir here,” said Allison Butcher, one of several members of council who thanked Hicks for his presentation.

“We hear you. We are with you,” she said, adding that sometimes the town feels powerless to influence NB Power and the province.

“Unfortunately, as a municipal government, we have said we don’t agree with it [the gas plant], but I’m not sure it matters to them.

“So, I thank you for continuing to beat the drum.”

NB Power Plan

Meantime, St. Thomas University Economic Professor Andrew Secord asked NB Power about introducing “time of use” rates during this week’s Energy & Utilities Board hearings in Moncton.

Vice President Brad Coady replied those rates could come “as early as April 1, 2028,” but he cautioned it would depend on several factors including EUB rulings on how electricity rates are designed and the time that would be needed to educate customers.