The Consumer Advocate has made his recommendations for rate mitigation in the post-Muskrat Falls era.
Ratepayers in Newfoundland and Labrador pay 12.2 cents kWh for electricity. Without mitigation, that rate could skyrocket.
Government has said it wants to keep the rate at 13.5 cents. To that goal, Consumer Advocate Dennis Browne has some suggestions:
- Put a cap on the capital budgets of Newfoundland Power and NL Hydro;
- Reduce the rate of return of Hydro;
- End the “rainy day” sinking fund payments to Ottawa, which equate about $100-million a year;
- Stop forcing ratepayers to subsidize communities that rely on diesel generation, at a cost of about $66-million a year;
- Eliminate the $50-million a year residents of this province pay in HST on their power bills;
- Privatize Nalcor’s oil and gas holdings—equating to about $125-million a year;
- Reorganize all the Nalcor companies associated with Muskrat and power delivery;
- Freeze power rates until rate mitigation is dealt with.
Advocate says we’ll be in much better position 2030 and beyond. Govt has to do legislative changes in next 12-months pic.twitter.com/vH95bL0Vq5
— Brian Madore (@bmadorevocm) November 6, 2019
