The Nova Scotia Energy Board has removed a cap on increases for Lunenburg’s three general-service electricity rate classes and approved schedules that pass through changes in Nova Scotia Power’s charges. The linked July 31, 2026 orders are Town of Lunenburg, 2026 NSEB 17 and 2026 NSEB 18.
The approvals set rates for service from August 1, 2026, and a further schedule from January 1, 2027. But the board expressly warned that the 2027 rates would likely need another adjustment when that year’s fuel and demand-side-management riders became known. The January schedule is not a guarantee of an unchanged bill throughout 2027.
Cap removal does not collect the deferred balance
The town applied on May 29 to remove the cap established in its September 2025 general rate approval. That cap applied to the three general-service classes, rather than being a universal limit on every electricity customer’s bill.
The board approved rates based on the earlier rate application without that cap, together with the changes in Nova Scotia Power’s municipal-class rates and its fuel and demand-side-management charges. Both July orders incorporate the combined effects in their August schedule; they are not two separate increases to be added to the listed tariff.
The cap-removal order also records an important limit: a deferred revenue balance was not being collected through this application. The utility proposed continuing to accrue interest and seeking recovery in a further application early in 2027. The order does not state the balance or approve a particular future recovery charge.
Existing formulas pass through power costs
The second application, filed July 3, sought to pass through Nova Scotia Power’s approved 2026 and 2027 general-rate changes and its fuel and demand-side-management adjustments. The board relied on established formulas, including a power-cost formula approved after a 2005 public hearing and separate adjustment formulas approved in 2010.
The tariff links the general power-cost adjustment to forecast purchases from Nova Scotia Power relative to forecast electric-rate revenue. It separately calculates fuel and demand-side-management adjustments using purchased and sold electricity. The utility must supply forecast figures, compare them with the previous two years’ actual purchases and sales, and explain the differences when seeking a schedule change.
The schedules allow the board to make these formula-based amendments upon notice from the utility without requiring another public hearing. That is a defined tariff mechanism for passing through specified costs, not unrestricted permission for the utility to set its own rates.
What the approved schedules say
The August domestic-service schedule lists an energy charge of 18.492 cents per kilowatt-hour and a $15.04 monthly service charge. The January schedule lists 18.915 cents per kilowatt-hour with the same monthly service charge, subject to the board’s warning about further rider adjustments.
For small-general customers, the listed energy charge moves from 18.064 to 18.477 cents per kilowatt-hour, while the monthly base charge remains $15.31. That class applies where annual energy use does not exceed 12,000 kilowatt-hours. Other general-service classes have distinct demand charges and energy-price tiers, so the listed changes should not be reduced to a single percentage applying to everyone.
The orders also contain separate optional time-of-day and street-lighting schedules. The time-of-day option is restricted to customers using specified thermal-storage or approved time-shifting heating systems; it is not automatically available to every household.
These orders establish the approved tariff schedules and their effective dates. They do not confirm subsequent billing, resolve the proposed recovery of deferred revenue, or establish that the January 2027 figures will remain unchanged after the annual riders are updated.
