Solar power is becoming more popular in New Brunswick, but a proposed change from NB Power has some customers and those in the industry concerned.
The number of customers on NB Power’s solar net metering system jumped from 465 in 2023 to more than 2,100 currently. The program allows customers to use solar power during the day and feed extra to NB Power’s grid.
Customers are able to receive credit for the power fed to the grid, and draw from that same grid, at the same rate.
Under the proposal before the Energy and Utilities Board, homeowners would no longer get full retail value for the electricity they send back to NB Power.
“It will completely decimate the solar industry in New Brunswick,” warned Michael Bourque, chair of Solar NB Solaire, an organization established in 2025 to represent installers, system owners and stakeholders.
But the utility says the current model is no longer sustainable because solar adoption has grown far faster than the program was originally designed for.
The utility also says funding from both its own rebate program and federal green energy incentives have dried up. NB Power also argues that as more customers join, non-solar ratepayers are helping cover grid costs.
“They’re lowering their bill but pushing those costs to other customers that aren’t participating. That’s what we’re trying to undo,” said Philippe Landry, NB Power’s acting VP of Operations
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“The current program made a lot of sense when we were dealing with early adopters.”
NB Power’s proposal also includes a new demand charge for solar customers at a rate of $13 per kilowatt based on a customer’s highest burst of power use between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. in any given month.
Bourque says this would be Canada’s first residential solar demand charge.
“The biggest challenge will be the demand charge. The demand charge is something that customers cannot have control over,” he said.
Bourque points out the biggest strain on the grid typically happens during a few hours on the coldest winter mornings. He says in his own home, those short heating surges can reach about 20 kilowatts.
“If you were to take that 20 kilowatt of demand and multiply it by the $13 per kilowatt a month, it works out to over $250 just for that demand charge. And that doesn’t cover the energy costs associated with using electric space heating,” he said.
In addition, a rebate to help offset solar panel installation costs was cancelled just days ago.
All this has Bourque warning that the changes could devastate the growing industry, cost jobs, and drive up costs for customers looking to produce their own energy.
Barry Keizer, from Quispamsis, N.B., says the proposal completely changes his plans as a solar power customer.
He invested about $40,000 into a home solar system last year, expecting it would pay for itself in roughly eight years.
Now he says that future is uncertain.
“I would probably have go to a $30,000 battery system to store it on my own,” he said.
Existing solar customers like Keizer, however, and anyone who gets approved and installed before the 2027 deadline would be grandfathered into the current system for 10 years.
Still, Keizer is critical of the proposal.
“If this goes through in 2027, they’ll kill the solar industry in New Brunswick. So there’s no longer a viable return on investment. So all the solar installers will collapse, they will go away to other provinces,” he said.
The Energy and Utilities Board will hold a hearing in late summer or fall on the proposed new demand charge and rate changes. Bourque is calling for a delay until January 2028 so that other options can be studied.
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