New Brunswick utility says it took shortcuts with gas plant to avoid blackouts

NB Power fielded questions about a recent critical auditor general report.

FREDERICTON — New Brunswick’s public power utility says it took shortcuts with a natural gas plant because it wanted to avoid rolling electricity blackouts within the next two years.

Executives for NB Power defended their decisions on Thursday to lawmakers after the province’s auditor general said the corporation’s poor choices exposed taxpayers to millions of dollars of risk.

“Quite frankly, I’d rather be here now talking about how we made this decision and the things that we can do better than (be) here in the dark talking about this because we don’t have power for New Brunswickers,” Lori Clark, CEO and president of NB Power, told the public accounts committee.

NB Power’s Renewable Integration and Grid Security project is a 500-Megawatt natural gas power plant proposed for rural southeastern New Brunswick and expected to be operational by 2028. Nova Scotia’s Independent Energy System Operator has also signed a deal securing the option to use one-fifth of the power the plant generates.

The project is pitched as an urgent response to prevent future energy shortages caused by retiring coal and oil facilities. The Crown corporation says the future plant will also provide a backstop when renewable energy sources are impacted by weather.

Auditor general Paul Martin said last week that NB Power entered into a long-term agreement before regulatory approval and selected equipment without studying alternatives, among other missteps. The corporation “did not proceed in the clearest or most disciplined order, increasing governance, financial and regulatory risk for New Brunswick power and energy customers,” Martin said.

On Thursday, Clark admitted to lawmakers that the plant “required adaptations” to the standard way the Crown corporation goes about awarding contracts and planning projects. But she said those decisions reflected urgency, “not a lack of oversight.”

Had the corporation followed regular procedures, the project would have been delayed by five years, time Clark said NB Power didn’t have because of a looming electricity shortage.

However, facing repeated questions from elected officials about why NB Power didn’t follow its own regulations, Clark said the corporation would “do better” at tracking deviations from its regular processes and consider changes.

The auditor general said NB Power, before receiving approval from the Utilities and Energy Board, entered into a 25-year partnership with U.S. firm ProEnergy to build and run the plant. If the provincial regulator had denied the project, the utility could’ve been forced to compensate ProEnergy for $55.1 million in early construction costs, Martin said.

Clark said Thursday the partnership was the only viable option given the tight timeline and NB Power’s lack of expertise to build the plant itself. For example, NB Power would not have been able to acquire the duel-combustion turbines it needed without ProEnergy.

She also dismissed concerns raised by the auditor general about signing a contract with ProEnergy before regulatory approval.

“There are conditions and penalties in the contract if they’re not able to deliver, so that risk is all transferred to the proponent, not to New Brunswick customers,” Clark told the committee.

The proposed power plant, to be located about 20 kilometres north of Sackville, N.B., received approval from the provincial energy board in May, but still requires a green light from the Liberal government after the results of an environmental assessment.

Eli Ridder, The Canadian Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 11, 2026.