Point Lepreau's lengthy shutdown last year will cost P.E.I. power customers $14.5M

The extended shutdown of New Brunswick's Point Lepreau nuclear generating station will leave Prince Edward Island power customers on the hook for $14.5 million.

Maritime Electric buys 30 megawatts — about 15 per cent of the P.E.I. utility's total electricity needs — from Lepreau.

The nuclear generating station went down for maintenance in April last year and didn't come back online until mid-December. During that time, Maritime Electric had to buy its power elsewhere.

A shutdown of Lepreau was accounted for in Maritime Electric's last rate application with IRAC, but it was forecast for only 50 days.

But problems were found in the plant's main generator, and the closure ballooned to 248 days. It was the second-longest service interruption caused by equipment problems at the plant in its 41-year history.

The cost to Maritime Electric to buy power from elsewhere amounted to around $58,000 for each day of the outage.

Maritime Electric has multiple applications for rate increases already waiting for approval by IRAC. (Carolyn Ryan/CBC)

In an email to CBC News, the provincial government said those costs would not likely be incorporated into the rates power consumers pay until the utility applies for a general rate increase in 2026.

"Overall, Point Lepreau has been a good source of non-emitting baseload electricity generation for Islanders, however we do want to control more of our own energy and increase our energy generation assets," a spokesperson for P.E.I.'s Energy Department said in the statement.

'Where are we going to get the power to do this?'

Maritime Electric has multiple applications for rate increases already waiting for approval by IRAC, including one to cover the $37 million it cost to restore power after post-tropical storm Fiona in 2022.

The company is applying to spend $427 million on a combustion turbine, a battery for energy storage systems, and internal combustion engines.

That application has drawn criticism from some for its reliance on fossil-fuel technology, but Maritime Electric has said the equipment it's seeking approval for should be cheaper in the long run than continuing to buy power off-Island.

WATCH | How much did Lepreau's 248-day shutdown cost, and who pays? 

Robert Henderson, a Liberal MLA and Opposition energy critic, said he understands Maritime Electric needs to get its power from somewhere, but he'd like to see more thoughtful planning from both the province and the utility.

"There's some big questions that need to be discussed, I think, and it seems to me that both Maritime Electric and government have been somewhat negligent in … trying to come up with a plan," Henderson said.