Latest news with #EnergyBoard
CTV News
4 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
Energy board orders report from Nova Scotia Power about cyberattack ahead of public inquiry
The Nova Scotia Energy Board is ordering Nova Scotia Power to submit a detailed report on the recent cyberattack that compromised the personal information of hundreds of thousands of customers by the end of the year. The energy board says the utility will also file monthly updates on its response to the cyberattack until the report is complete. The first update is due by Aug. 1. 'Once the report is filed, the Board will launch a public process to review both the report and NS Power's planning for and response to the incident,' a news release from the energy board says. 'The Board continues to work with MNP Digital, which is independently assessing the cybersecurity incident on behalf of Board Counsel and staff. NS Power has provided a high-level briefing about the incident to MNP, Board Counsel, and staff.' In an open letter to Nova Scotia Power, the energy board laid out the requirements of the report, which include: an account of how the utility discovered the breach a description of the 'attack vector' a timeline of the events identification of compromised data and systems specific details regarding the type and amount of exposed personal information evidence indicating the presence of the breach, such as suspicious files or unusual network traffic a description of how the breach happened identification of any vulnerabilities or security gaps that were exploited assessment of the financial, operational and reputational damage to Nova Scotia Power evaluation of potential harm to past and present customers and employees steps the utility took to mitigate and contain the breach, as well as steps taken to eliminate the threat a review of the utility's policies and practices for collecting, retaining and using personal information recommendations to enhance security measures and improve communications 'While the Board appreciates that it will not be possible to publicly disclose certain information for security reasons and to mitigate impacts relating to personal and confidential information that was stolen, it is important that the Board's inquiry be conducted publicly and as transparently as possible,' the letter reads. 'Special considerations and procedures may be required when sensitive information is involved. 'The Board has received numerous letters and emails from NS Power's customers expressing concerns, frustrations, and complaints about the compromise and misuse of their personal information, the risks relating to the release of their personal information, and difficulties encountered in communications with the credit monitoring service engaged by NS Power.' Timeline of cyberattack Nova Scotia Power told the public it was the 'victim of a sophisticated ransomware attack' on May 23, but the actual incident happened months prior. The utility detected 'unusual activity' on its network on April 25 and initiated its response plan. The utility later confirmed the breach happened on or around March 19. Nova Scotia Power previously said 280,000 customers were impacted by the incident, which potentially compromised personal information like names, phone numbers, social insurance numbers, email addresses and mailing addresses. Due to the cyberattack, the utility is offering five years of free credit monitoring to all former and current customers. It also said it will be deleting all social insurance numbers of customers from its files. Along with the energy board, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner is also investigating the incident. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
CTV News
25-06-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Hydro Ottawa plans ‘seismic shift' in spending to improve electricity infrastructure
Hydro Ottawa needs to raise distribution rates by $3.79 to $6.08 a month for five years to fund a 'seismic shift' in capital spending to boost the hydro grid, according to the utility's CEO. The municipal utility has filed an application to the Ontario Energy Board to increase distribution rates between 2026 and 2030, to fund hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades to the hydro infrastructure. 'We're talking about a seismic shift in the amount of capital that we're doing,' Hydro Ottawa CEO Bryce Conrad told Council Wednesday morning. 'It's 250 per cent of what we have done in the previous plan to support the grid, to support the growth.' Under the proposal, Hydro Ottawa wants to increase distribution rates $6.08 a month in 2026, and then between $2.72 and $3.79 a month between 2027 and 2030. Conrad said the 'necessary investments' required to boost the electricity infrastructure in Ottawa 'will not be cheap.' 'The scale and scope of the electricity infrastructure investment is simply too large to be born exclusively by local ratepayers,' Conrad said. 'Additional support from upper levels of government is required to ensure this last mile distribution is available.' Conrad notes Toronto Hydro and other utilities are also proposing to increase distribution rates to fund infrastructure upgrades and expansion. Hydro Ottawa will spend $1.195 billion over five years to improve hydro infrastructure, with 55 per cent of the funding going towards 'growth and electrification' to power the growing city and 'service customers' changing needs for electricity, including solutions such as new technologies.' The utility said its investment plan includes enabling energy transition and reducing emissions, responding to rising costs and hiring more workers. Some councillors told Hydro Ottawa officials they have received calls about hydro outages in their ward and wondered if the grid is strong enough to support the growing city. Conrad said tree contact is the number one cause of power outages in Ottawa. 'Any outage is one too many,' Conrad said, adding Hydro Ottawa saw improvements in grid reliability last year compared to 2023. 'If I'm being very honest with you, we've had a number of tree contacts and things of that nature which cause periodic momentary outages. We also tend to have more than our fair share of bad drivers in this town that like to hit poles and construction crews with excavators that like to hit overhead wires.' Hydro Ottawa has 364,334 residential and business customers in Ottawa and serves 1,116 sq. km of area. Residents are invited to provide feedback to the Ontario Energy Board. Hydro Ottawa's monthly distribution rate increased $4.92 a month for residential customers in 2024 and $0.16 per month this year.
CBC
23-06-2025
- Business
- CBC
Nova Scotia Power to challenge $10M penalty at public hearing
Two years after the Nova Scotia government slapped Nova Scotia Power with a $10-million fine for failing to meet renewable energy targets, the utility is poised to argue in a public hearing that it shouldn't have to pay. Lawyers for Nova Scotia Power will appear before the Nova Scotia Energy Board this week in a hearing that's expected to last several days. They'll try to convince the board that the utility should not be punished for missing the legislated target because it did all it could to meet it. In a pre-hearing submission made to the board, Nova Scotia Power described the decision to apply a fine as "flawed" and "illogical." The utility is asking the board to overturn the penalty entirely or to have the fine reduced. Nova Scotia Power fell 8 points short Nova Scotia Power was supposed to be generating 40 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. When it missed that deadline because of delays to the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric dam in Labrador, the province granted some leeway, creating an "alternative compliance plan." Under the new plan, Nova Scotia Power was to deliver a three-year average of 40 per cent renewables by the end of 2022. But as the deadline approached, the utility conceded that it would again fall short. It achieved an average of about 32 per cent renewable energy from 2020 to 2022. Again, it blamed the problem-plagued Muskrat Falls project. Nova Scotia Power is arguing that even though it didn't meet the target, the penalty was not warranted because it did its due diligence and "honestly believed" energy from Muskrat Falls would be flowing to Nova Scotia in time. Both of those are listed as acceptable defences in the province's electricity regulations. Energy from Muskrat Falls started flowing to Nova Scotia before the end of 2022, but it wasn't enough to meet the modified target. Nova Scotia Power said there was no time to pivot to other renewable energy sources to make up the shortfall, noting that new wind projects take about five years to bring into operation, and importing hydro through New Brunswick would have been impractical "even if cost were not a consideration." "Unfortunately, it was a race against time and NS Power did not quite get to the finish line," the company said. The province chose the maximum allowable fine under the law, but Nova Scotia Power says the fine "is grossly disproportionate and without any justification" since it came close to meeting the 40 per cent target. The regulations prohibit the utility from recovering the penalty through rates. In other words, Nova Scotia Power customers can't be put on the hook for the $10 million. The cost would ultimately fall to shareholders of Emera, Nova Scotia Power's parent company. Province 'cannot trust' NSP A pre-hearing submission made on behalf of Nova Scotia's energy minister defends issuing the penalty and says it's the only mechanism available for encouraging compliance. "[The minister of energy] cannot trust that NS Power will meet future [renewable energy standard] obligations, or, more critically, its sustainability standards legislated for 2030." The submission questions whether Nova Scotia Power exercised due diligence in trying to hit the target. It says "there were options" the utility could have explored to mitigate the Muskrat Falls shortfall. Nova Scotia is asking the board to uphold the penalty, or put it back in the hands of the energy minister to reconsider the amount. Challenges of renewable transition The penalty is just one example of how the transition to more renewable energy has been challenging for Nova Scotia Power. The utility had to scramble to buy alternate fuels because of the Muskrat Falls delays, and the price was much higher than the hydro electricity would have been. Nova Scotia Power eventually secured a federal bailout to avoid a massive rate hike for customers. Nova Scotia has more renewable energy targets coming up, which also come with the risk of penalties. Nova Scotia Power is supposed to get off coal and hit 80 per cent renewable energy by 2030. The energy board has called the timeline "very tight." Adam Fremeth, an associate professor of business, economics and public policy at Western University, said the renewable transition is proving difficult for other jurisdictions, too. He said more hiccups should be expected. "The energy transition is not a linear process," he said. "It's up and down, there's obstacles that are … going to come in the way. Some are going to be technical, some of them are just going to be the nature of such a large change in a major industry." Fremeth, who specializes in the study of energy policy, said penalties for utilities that fail to hit renewable targets are common across North America. But, he added, many other jurisdictions have more clarity in their rules than Nova Scotia. He said he hopes the dispute between Nova Scotia Power and the provincial government leads to updates of Nova Scotia's renewable electricity regulations. "I think that type of development would be a positive turn for this," he said.
CBC
12-06-2025
- Business
- CBC
N.S. Power approved for $1.8M cyber security project weeks after ransomware attack
Nova Scotia Power has gotten approval for a cyber security improvement project, just weeks after a ransomware attack affected the personal data of thousands of customers. The Nova Scotia Energy Board approved the $1.8-million initiative, dubbed the Next Generation Network Security Design project, on Thursday. The utility submitted its application on April 7 for the project, which it said would enhance its existing information technology network and firewall infrastructure to manage cyber threats, "resolve operational complexities, and facilitate future business objectives." Nova Scotia Power said the project will "improve cyber security capabilities and reduce the risk of a cyber incident," Roland A. Deveau, the energy board's vice-chair, wrote in a decision letter that was shared with the media. The utility's computer systems had already been attacked by ransomware hackers when the company made its application. It has said the breach happened on March 19, but it did not discover the issue until more than a month later, on April 25. The company disclosed the cyber security incident three days after that. "Importantly, the board's approval of this project does not preclude it from assessing the adequacy of N.S. Power's IT systems as part of the board's ongoing investigation into the data breach," the board said in a news release. "At this time, it is not known whether this specific project would have prevented or mitigated the breach." About 280,000 customers — more than half of the utility's customers in the province — were informed by letter that their personal information, including their name, address, phone number, birth date, driver's licence, social insurance number and banking information may have been taken in the attack. The board said it is working with cyber security experts to conduct a full review of whether Nova Scotia Power acted prudently before, during, and after the event. In his letter, Deveau said the utility explained in its application "that a majority of its network equipment was considered 'end of life' in 2016," though some could still be used for "lower security needs." Nova Scotia Power said the upgrade is needed now as new risks emerge and critical infrastructure is increasingly targeted by bad actors. "The complexities of N.S. Power's network and firewall infrastructure make management and security difficult to monitor, measure and enforce," the utility was quoted in the decision letter as saying. "It is challenging to meet new and emerging security threats in a rapid manner to maintain a low risk to N.S. Power." The utility was also approved to source the new technology for the project through its existing vendor, Cisco. It said creating an alternative system with a new provider would mean "significant time, effort, and cost." The application showed the project has been in progress for more than a year, and will come into service this September. The estimated life of the new technology system is 10 years, according to Nova Scotia Power.
