Nova Scotia Power has pushed back by a year the start date of a proposed new charge for customers who generate electricity and sell it back to the grid, following days of concern from the solar industry and politicians worried that it will damage the sector.
The proposed charge would have come into effect Tuesday if approved, but Nova Scotia Power said in a news release Tuesday it will change the date in its filing from Feb. 1, 2022, to Feb. 1, 2023.
“We understand that the solar industry was taken off guard,” utility CEO Peter Gregg said in an interview.
“There could have been an opportunity to have more conversations in advance.”
Peter Gregg is president and CEO of Nova Scotia Power. (CBC)
Gregg said the utility will meet with members of the solar industry over the next year to work on finding solutions that support the sector’s growth, while addressing what NSP sees as an inequity in the net metering system.
NSP recognized that customers who choose solar invest a significant amount and pay for the electricity they use, but they don’t pay for costs associated with accessing the electrical grid when they need energy, such as on cold winter evenings when the sun is not shining.
“I know that’s hit a nerve, but it doesn’t take away the fact that it is an issue,” Gregg said.
He said this is an issue utilities are navigating around North America, and NSP is open to hearing ideas for other models of charges or fees.
The utility’s suggested system access charge closely resembles one proposed in California, which has also raised major concerns from the solar industry and been criticized by the likes of Elon Musk.
Although the “solar profile” of Nova Scotia and California is very different, with far more solar customers in that state, Gregg said the fundamental issues are the same.
For those with a typical 10-kilowatt solar system, which generates around $1,800 of electricity a year, the new charge would mean those customers would be required to pay $960 back to NSP. That would roughly double the length of time it takes for those customers to pay off their investment for the panels.
David Brushett, chair of Solar Nova Scotia, said he relayed concerns from solar installers and others in the industry to Gregg on Monday.
Brushett said the year delay is a positive first step, but he is still calling on the province to take a strong stance against the application, which has led to customers cancelling their panel installations and companies considering layoffs.
“There’s still an urgency to this situation that hasn’t been addressed, and we need to kind of protect the industry,” he said Tuesday.
This doesn’t end or change how wrong this is. It doesn’t end the fight that needs to happen to prevent this from happening. <a href=”https://twitter.com/nspowerinc?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@nspowerinc</a> this backwards proposal is wrong & goes against the best interests of all Nova Scotians. Don’t delay it, END IT <a href=”https://t.co/d5O6NU4xoo”>https://t.co/d5O6NU4xoo</a>
NSP’s original application proposed exempting net metering customers who enrolled before Feb. 1, 2022, from the charge for 25 years after they sign up. But any benefit would be lost if those customers sold their home, and the exemption wouldn’t extend to the new buyers, said Brushett.
Carbon offsets missing from equation: industry
Brushett said NSP “completely ignored” the fact that it’s getting free carbon offset credits from homeowners who use solar energy under the provincial cap and trade program.
If the net metering system continues as is, NSP has said non-solar customers would pay about $55 million between now and 2030. That number assumes about 2,000 people sign up for net metering each year over the next nine years.
When asked whether those carbon emission credits were factored into the calculations for the proposed charge, Gregg said, “I don’t believe in the current structure it is, but it’s something that certainly we’d be open to hearing about.”
Brushett said his group is finalizing a legal response to NSP’s proposal and has already filed an official complaint against the company with the UARB.
Base charge on actual electrical output: customer
At least one shareholder in NSP parent company Emera is considering selling his shares in response to the application.
Joe Hood, a shareholder from Middle Sackville, said the proposed charge won’t apply to his existing 11.16-kilowatt solar system, but if it did, it would cost him $1,071 a year.
“I am offended that a company I would invest in would do this to the solar industry in Nova Scotia,” he said.
According to his meter, Hood said he pushed 9,600 kilowatt hours of solar electricity to the grid last year— some only for a brief period, and all of which was used by his home by the end of the year.
Under the proposed charge, someone with one solar panel who goes away on vacation in the summer would push all their electricity to the grid, and be charged far less than someone with 10 panels who has used all their own power and hasn’t pushed anything.
Joe Hood is a solar customer in Middle Sackville, N.S. (CBC)
“Nova Scotia Power’s argument is that it’s an issue with the grid. Well, then it should be based on what touches the grid,” Hood said.
Far from actually making the system fair for everyone, Hood said this charge places solar only in the hands of the super-rich or NSP, with projects like its community solar gardens in Amherst, N.S.
Green Party suggests legislation update
Nova Scotia’s Green Party also said Tuesday that Gregg’s arguments of fairness are misleading.
“With this solar tax, NSP is stamping out any competition from ordinary Nova Scotians, making sure that no renewables will ever get built in Nova Scotia unless Emera can reap a return on investment,” said Green Leader Anthony Edmonds in a statement.
The party is calling for an update to the Electricity Act that would “prevent penalizing any activity that helps Nova Scotia reach its emissions target.”
In its application, NSP has also asked to increase electricity rates for residential customers by at least 10 per cent over the next three years.
The company wants to maintain its nine per cent rate of return.
NSP expects to earn $153 million this year, $192 million in 2023, and $213 million in 2024 from its rate of return.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
