Description and Background
The Province of New Brunswick will bring qualifying large industrial companies’ electricity costs in line with their Canadian competitors by implementing a Large Industrial Renewable Energy Purchase Program.
Under the proposed Large Industrial Renewable Energy Purchase Program (LIREPP), NB Power will purchase electricity from renewable sources, such as biomass and river hydro, from qualifying large industrial customers who have renewable electricity generating facilities located in New Brunswick. The revenue from renewable energy sales will assist these qualifying customers to reduce their net electricity costs and thereby increase their competitiveness in the global market.
The LIREPP is designed to address the need for long-term stable and competitive electricity costs for New Brunswick’s largest industries. The program is the result of more than 18 months of public-private sector collaboration through the work of a task force and the efforts of the Energy Commission.
This is a New Brunswick-based solution to our industries’widely recognized energy and competitiveness challenges, effectively reducing electricity costs to be in line with the average costs of competitors across Canada. The retention of anchor industrial operations and facilities will support the overall sustainability of our major industrial employers, particularly the forestry sector and the rural and northern economies most affected by it. Furthermore, retaining these large base-load electricity customers will enable NB Power to avoid a significant loss of income which would occur if large industrial customers were to leave New Brunswick as some have done in recent years. This income loss would have to be recovered from NB Power’s remaining residential, commercial and industrial customers through higher rates.