by John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Source: Telegraph-Journal
October 23, 2026

NB Energy Minister René Legacy

New Brunswick’s energy minister says he wants a better explanation from NB Power about a big repair job at the Point Lepreau nuclear plant that likely cost its customers an extra $178 million.

René Legacy told Brunswick News on Wednesday he would seek a meeting with Andrew MacGillivray, chairman of NB Power’s board of directors, after learning the public utility had picked the most expensive repair option.

“I only recently read about the EUB’s decision,” Legacy said on the sidewalk of Fredericton’s King Street, only a block away from NB Power’s headquarters. “I need to talk to the chair. We need to talk about the process, and how it came to its decision.”

Last week, the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board, an independent regulator that acts as a check to NB Power’s monopoly on electricity, issued a decision on the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station.

The three-member panel had reviewed NB Power’s application to retroactively ask permission to spend more than $50 million on a big capital repair project.

The law states NB Power must ask the regulator’s permission before spending 10 per cent on such high-cost projects, with a few exceptions. Those exceptions include projects that are essential for the reliability and safety of the electricity system.

The issue stemmed from a breakdown in June 2024, when technicians working at the nuclear plant west of Saint John discovered that stator bars inside the main generator were badly damaged.

Those bars, essential for the proper functioning of the massive generator, were improperly installed between 2008 and 2012 and several of them prematurely failed. Ian Thompson, an engineering expert who examined the repair job and testified at the public hearing looking into the matter, said it was “a miracle” the stator bars had lasted as long as they did.

NB Power was forced to painstakingly remove and replace all 144 stator bars, what it dubbed the Rewind Project.

Four options

The public utility’s executives had four options to choose from, but decided on the most expensive one: fixing the problem right away to avoid the plant being down a second winter in a row.

Point Lepreau provides a massive amount of the province’s baseload power. When it isn’t running, NB Power must fire up more expensive generators or buy electricity from outside the province. During the summer, when demand is low, it can be less than $1 million a day. On the coldest winter day, it’s several million dollars.

NB Power VP Brad Coady testifying before the Legislature’s Public Accounts Committee in June

Brad Coady, the utility’s chief commercial officer, has publicly sounded the alarm that NB Power came dangerously close to running out of electricity on a peak demand day on Feb. 4, 2023, only a year before the Point Lepreau breakdown.

During the public hearing, NB Power and the province’s public intervenor asked their own independent experts to give an assessment of the situation.

Testifying on behalf of NB Power, consultant Bruce Tsuchida from Boston concluded replacement power for Point Lepreau would have been difficult to find and having the plant offline too long would jeopardize NB Power’s ability to maintain reliability.

He was backed by the public intervenor’s expert, consultant Michael Zajmalowski from Toronto, who testified that the rewind project “represented a reasonable balance of reliability, risk and cost considerations.”

EUB expresses concern

Still, the three-member panel wasn’t happy that NB Power didn’t fully weigh all its options.

The most expensive option, picked by NB Power, finished the job before late 2025. However, the total cost for repairs and buying replacement power was $558 million. The cheapest of the options, using a temporary repair and delaying the work until April 2026, was estimated to cost $410 million. That would have represented a savings of $178 million.