Nova Scotia’s private power company has named a new chief executive as the utility deals with fallout from last year’s cyberattack and seeks a widely criticized hike in power rates.
Nova Scotia Power says current president and CEO Peter Gregg will leave his post on March 1 to become vice-president of strategy and policy with the utility’s parent company, Emera Inc. His replacement is Nova Scotia Power board member Vivek Sood, a longtime executive with grocer Sobeys Inc. and its Stellarton, N.S.-based parent firm, Empire Company Ltd.
“(Sood’s) business acumen, depth of experience and deep Nova Scotia roots are a strong asset as we focus on the next chapter, delivering for customers and strengthening relationships with stakeholders,” Emera CEO and Nova Scotia Power board chair, Scott Balfour, said in a statement.
Gregg has led the utility since 2020. In a release, the company highlighted his leadership on reliability investments and major infrastructure projects.
Sood will take over as Nova Scotia Power faces multiple investigations, legal threats and complaints from customers and politicians over its handling of a cyberattack last year. The data of 280,000 customers was accessed in the March 2025 incident by what Gregg has said was likely a Russia-based actor. Politicians have complained since the attack that some of their constituents have received bills much higher than normal.
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The utility has said some customers received inflated bills because it had lost the ability to receive data from power meters and had to estimate electricity usage. The company said about 75 per cent of the meters were working by the end of January and the rest should be functioning again by next month.
In its release on the CEO change, Nova Scotia Power says that “fully restoring its systems and business processes” will be a key focus in 2026.
The Nova Scotia Energy Board will hold two hearings on the cyberattack. One will examine the technical aspects while the other will focus on billing, how the utility collected and stored customer information and how it guarded against identity theft. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has launched its own investigation.
The utility faces a potential court battle with its customers. In December, Halifax-based MacGillivray Injury and Insurance Law filed a proposed class action in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia alleging data governance breakdowns, utility-wide responsiveness failures and inaccurate billing impacting hundreds of thousands of customers.
Sood will oversee a contentious plan to increase energy prices. The power utility has proposed residential rate increases of about eight per cent by next year. If approved, the first 3.8 per cent increase would be effective retroactive to Jan. 1, and the second 4.1 per cent hike would come into effect Jan. 1, 2027.
The provincial energy department, led by Premier Tim Houston who is also the energy minister, has called for the regulator to reject the proposal, saying Nova Scotia Power has failed to prove the increase is just and reasonable. It has argued that the current economic context needs to be taken into account, and all Nova Scotians are feeling financial pressure. The Liberals and NDP are also calling for the proposal to be rejected.
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