NB Power to ask for less of a rate increase due to Point Lepreau settlement

New Brunswick’s power utility is set to request a lower rate increase due to a legal settlement announced last week over the refurbishment of the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station.

NB Power says they’ve now filed new evidence with the province’s Energy and Utilities Board to justify requesting an average rate increase of 1.5 per cent — a decrease from the 2 per cent increase they’d asked for previously.

READ MORE: NB Power says legal settlement will chop size of next rate increase

Get breaking National news

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.

Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up

By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

“We are very pleased to immediately share the benefits of this cash settlement with our customers through a reduced rate increase,” said NB Power president and CEO Gaëtan Thomas, in a press release on Thursday.

“We are also greatly encouraged that our determined pursuit of a fair settlement with insurers on behalf of our customers has successfully concluded.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We are also greatly encouraged that our determined pursuit of a fair settlement with insurers on behalf of our customers has successfully concluded."

According to the utility, if the new request is approved the average New Brunswick household will pay an extra $2.86 a month instead of $4.

The rate change would come into affect later this spring.

READ MORE: Scientists say power utilities need to adapt to climate change, wilder weather

It was announced on March 26 that NB Power had reached a settlement with  “several insurers” that had underwritten the construction’s all-risk insurance policy during the refurbishment of the Point Lepreau station.