Three big challenges

·       Expanding the supply of electricity to meet expected demand growth. Our region’s annual electricity demand is projected to grow 62% or over 22 terawatt hours in 2050 compared to 2021, according to the Canada Energy Regulator. This equates to about another five Muskrat Falls hydroelectric facilities.

·       Maintaining reliable generation while increasing intermittent renewable energy sources. Wind generation is expected to play an important role in meeting future clean electricity needs, especially in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. However, existing scalable clean electricity sources like wind and solar are intermittent, requiring dispatchable power, energy storage, or export/import solutions.

·       Ensuring electricity is affordable for business and households. Utilities will be ramping up investments in clean electricity projects. However, the cost of these investments and the impact of electricity transformation on power rates are uncertain. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia will likely experience significant costs to comply with federal electricity regulations. This raises an important question: should provincial taxpayers and ratepayers bear financial burdens for federal deadlines in a traditionally provincial domain?

Three potential solutions

·       The Atlantic Loop, a massive clean energy transmission project, was proposed to help Nova Scotia and New Brunswick reduce their reliance on coal. However, there are conflicting views on whether it would have been a cost-effective solution. The two provincial and federal governments recently announced that a smaller, modified version of this project will be implemented instead.

·      Battery storage is a widely discussed potential solution for reliability issues with intermittent renewable generation. But they currently only provide up to four hours of storage. Significant technology development is required for wide-scale implementation and the costs of battery storage could be substantial.

·       Nuclear power via Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) could provide reliable, emissions-free energy but this technology is still under development and its final power costs remain uncertain.

“We urgently need to develop a roadmap to ensure clean, reliable and affordable  electricity,” says Asaff. “Federal deadlines are approaching yet we still don’t have a clear plan or sense of what it will cost to meet these requirements."