The Nova Scotia Energy Board has approved ending a Maritime Link payment holdback retroactively to May 1, 2024, while limiting the financing return NSP Maritime Link Inc. can collect because it waited too long to seek relief.
In NSP Maritime Link Inc.’s holdback application, 2026 NSEB 23, dated October 21, 2026, the board found that four months of electricity deliveries below the required threshold were excused by prudent utility practices or exceptional weather. It directed release of the qualifying retained amounts, with a compliance filing to settle carrying costs before a further order.
The reasons identify approximately $15.3 million in post-compliance holdback funds at the end of 2025. That is a historical fund balance, not a new damages award or a final calculation of everything payable under the decision.
Two conditions for ending the holdback
The holdback arose from delays in delivering the contracted Nova Scotia block of electricity over the Maritime Link. An earlier ruling established a $4-million monthly holdback on assessments paid by Nova Scotia Power to NSP Maritime Link.
To end it, at least 90 per cent of the contracted block, excluding make-up energy, had to be received in each of 12 consecutive months. Outstanding undelivered energy also had to fall below 10 per cent of the annual contracted amount.
The earlier ruling allowed relief for shortfalls caused by good utility practice or exceptional circumstances. NSP Maritime Link applied in February 2026, saying it had satisfied the conditions by May 1, 2024.
No party disputed that the outstanding-energy balance had fallen below the 10 per cent threshold. The dispute concerned July and September 2023 and March and April 2024, when deliveries did not reach 90 per cent.
Maintenance was assessed, not automatically excused
The board treated good utility practice as a contextual assessment of reasonable conduct. Perfection was not required, but a planned outage did not automatically qualify. An outage to repair damage caused by imprudent conduct could still fall outside the exception.
For July 2023, industrial customers questioned whether software-related work on the Labrador Island Link should have been finished before the asset was commissioned. The board found no evidence that the work should have been done earlier. It accepted that non-critical post-commissioning work can be necessary, and found the outage properly coordinated to enhance reliability.
September 2023 raised a different question: whether maintenance on the Maritime Link and Labrador Island Link had been coordinated to minimize lost deliveries. Critics noted that the Maritime Link work was complete before the Labrador link’s full shutdown.
The board found that earlier, overlapping single-pole maintenance had already limited the electricity available for delivery. Moving Maritime Link maintenance to the later full shutdown would not have increased what could reach Nova Scotia. It accepted the outage sequence as prudent coordination, not a missed opportunity to deliver more energy.
The board also accepted March 2024 maintenance and a temporary import limit imposed by the system operator as consistent with good utility practice. The operator’s limit reflected its judgment about system conditions, rather than an actual reliability failure of the two links.
Extreme weather and the limits of resilience
A separate March–April 2024 event damaged Labrador Island Link equipment during severe icing and winds. Intervenors questioned whether earlier weather damage and engineering concerns made the event foreseeable rather than exceptional.
The board found that the evidence did not establish an inherent design defect or an unreasonable design limit. It accepted that the conditions had not previously been observed in the affected area and qualified as exceptional circumstances. It did not require electrical infrastructure to withstand every possible weather event regardless of cost to customers.
Delay reduces carrying costs
Although the company established compliance as of May 1, 2024, it did not file its application until February 3, 2026. The board agreed with intervenors that the delay was longer than reasonably expected.
It allowed carrying costs at the company’s weighted average cost of capital for 15 months beyond the compliance period: an allowance for roughly six months to prepare the application and nine months for the regulatory process. After July 31, 2025, the company must instead use its actual cost of debt.
The company must confirm that debt cost and total carrying costs in a compliance filing. It must also continue reporting contracted deliveries, actual deliveries, shortfalls, make-up energy and other energy received, explaining monthly variances through Nova Scotia Power’s fuel-adjustment reporting.
Ending the holdback therefore does not end regulatory reporting on whether the contracted electricity is delivered.
