Setting the record straight on New Brunswick’s large industrial renewable energy purchase program

A recent media report that describes New Brunswick’s Large Industrial Renewable Energy Purchase Program (LIREPP) misses some key context.

The program was created in 2011 with the aim of making New Brunswick industrial electricity rates more in line with other Canadian jurisdictions. It was also designed to promote investment into renewable energy generation by New Brunswick companies to help NB Power offset its reliance on fossil fuels for generation.

The challenges LIREPP was designed to address continue to exist today. The current average New Brunswick large industrial rate is still over 20 percent higher than the Canadian average rate (source).

In addition, NB Power is still in need of more renewable energy with 34% of its generation currently coming from fossil fuels – something touched on as part of the NB EUB testimony but omitted from media reports. NB Power’s VP of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships testified, “It benefits NB Power and its ratepayers. We also have a renewable portfolio standard regulation where we have to acquire a certain amount of renewable energy for New Brunswickers. And generally speaking, the energy that we purchase from these customers is what we call firm and dispatchable. We can count on it being there and not weather driven. So it has a lot of value for New Brunswickers in the sense of what kind of renewable energy it is.”

J.D. Irving, Limited has taken steps to help NB Power decarbonize its grid by proposing two major renewable energy projects. Announced in April, the Brighton Mountain Wind Farm will generate 350 megawatts of renewable energy at full build-out. Just this week, J.D. Irving, Limited hosted an open house for its proposed $1.1-billion NextGen project at Irving Pulp & Paper, which includes a substantial green energy component. The new recovery boiler associated with the project will generate 140 megawatts of green energy. Combined, both projects will cut fossil fuel reliance on the New Brunswick electrical grid by over 50 per cent.

In its own description of LIREPP, the New Brunswick government notes that “procuring a supply of less price-volatile renewable electricity from LIREPP participants and maintaining base load industrial customers will assist NB Power in maintaining stable rates for all its customers.”

J.D. Irving, Limited and New Brunswickers remain aligned in our desire to see lower power rates for the benefit of all NB Power customers.