Nova Scotia Power Inc. is making amends — millions of them. The private-sector company, which provides 97% of the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in the province, has announced it’s about to pump up its efforts. This time, the boost will benefit the local economy.

The energy company, which manages $3.5 billion worth of assets, recently announced it will spend more than $400 million on capital expenditures this year. N.S. Power has typically spent about $150 million annually on capital projects. In 2009, it spent more than $270 million.

According to Mark Savory, the company’s vice president of technical and construction services, N.S. Power is “hiring more people, employing more contractors and consultants, and investing more in capital projects.” He adds that “a significant component of that investment is related to our plan for new, renewable electricity generation and emissions reductions.”

That plan is undoubtedly ambitious. It’s also in keeping with efforts by the provincial government to develop a program enabling the province to meet 25% of its energy needs through renewable sources by 2015. And last year, the new New Democratic Party government imposed regulated caps on greenhouse gases and air pollutant emissions from power-generation facilities. Those caps are aggressive, but achievable, N.S. Power says.

Capital projects will enable this goal to be achieved. Among the initiatives is a recently completed $45-million facility at the Trenton generating station that will provide fuel flexibility and reduce emissions. And the $84-million Tufts Cove waste-heat project, which involves installing a turbine to capture waste heat from the facility’s two natural gas combustion turbines, will produce 50 megawatts of new generation with only minimal production of additional carbon dioxide.

The recently announced multimillion-dollar largesse comes on the heels of the power company’s request to its regulator, the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board, regarding rates for customers: N.S. Power did the unexpected and requested a decrease.

Effective Jan. 1, customers saw their power bill flicker downward by 1.4%. N.S. Power contends the highly unusual move is linked to its fuel-adjustment mechanism, which was approved by the utility review board. The FAM reflects the actual cost of fuel used to make electricity and includes an annual adjustment for over- or underrecovery of costs in the previous year.

N.S. Power says the fuel strategy has enabled the utility to take advantage of lower commodities prices in 2009, switch between fuels at its generating stations and import cheaper electricity when it is available. Further fuel savings in 2009 also resulted from lower demand for electricity because of the economic downturn and customer commitment to energy conservation.

There’s little doubt that N.S. Power wants customers to know it’s one of the good guys. That’s a message that has fallen on deaf ears in recent years. Savage snowstorms and hurricane-force winds have wreaked havoc on power service in the province over the past few years, fraying both transmission lines and customers’ nerves.

The loss of goodwill started in 2004, when a small November snowfall brought down towers and left some residents in the dark for almost a week. Since then, birds, bugs and streamers from the Gay Pride parade have been blamed for blackouts. The utility has even fingered racoons for keeping 10,000 Halifax residents in the dark.

N.S. Power has been trying to make up ground in the past few years. The rate decrease and now the economic surge are sure to help. The utility is also seen as a bright, if intermittent light in the area of renewable energy.

Most recently, N.S. Power and OpenHydro successfully deployed the first commercial tidal turbine in the Bay of Fundy, where 100 billion tonnes of seawater flow in and out each day. The historic, one-megawatt turbine is now operational, rotating with the tides, collecting data — and producing energy. Now, the real challenge will be to keep the birds and the salty fog at bay. IE