P.E.I.'s Fiona-hit electrical grid remains at risk due to 'legislative restrictions': consultant
Maritime Electric is seeking more freedom when trimming trees around power lines
More than two and a half years after post-tropical storm Fiona wreaked havoc on Prince Edward Island's electric grid, limitations on how trees can be trimmed along power lines continue to put the system at risk during extremely high winds, a consultant's report warns.
The reason the issue continues to be flagged as a potential risk is the apparent inaction by the province in expanding access for Maritime Electric to trim trees beyond the current right-of-way, a concern initially raised as far back as October 2022, the month after Fiona struck.
The Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission hired U.K.-based consulting firm EA Technology to assess Maritime Electric's Fiona response, as the commission assessed the company's application to raise electricity rates to recoup the costs associated with that response.
The consultant concluded a lack of vegetation management by Maritime Electric during the lead-up to Fiona led to "increased rates of system damage caused by preventable tree contacts," which in turn led to outages on such a wide scale it "significantly extended customer's restoration times," which in some cases were longer than three weeks.
EA said an increase in vegetation management efforts by Maritime Electric since Fiona is "expected to improve overall electrical system performance on blue-sky days.
"However, due to current legislative restrictions and limitations, these programs are unlikely to prevent future windfall tree contacts during high-wind weather events."
'A few items that we need to change'
When Liberal MLA Robert Henderson questioned him on the topic in the provincial legislature on Friday, P.E.I.'s Minister of Environment and Energy Gilles Arsenault had this to say: "We are moving forward with Maritime Electric. We are looking at the vegetation management plan. We do have a few items that we need to change in our regulations."
"Regulatory changes can happen on any given Tuesday," Henderson responded, referring to the practice of regulatory changes being implemented at weekly government cabinet meetings.
"As I look at the docket here for our legislation, if it's a legislative change, there's nothing on the docket on that either. So, I'm just wondering what the delay is on this?"
A spokesperson for the Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action noted in an email to CBC News that P.E.I.'s Electric Power Act "currently has provisions related to entering land without permission for the purposes of surveying and planning vegetation management work, but currently the [act] does not grant the authority to perform vegetation management work without permission of the property owner."
The spokesperson said a number of potential legislative changes are being reviewed as the province develops a new energy strategy.
Maritime Electric told CBC News that amending the act to include something called "power of entry" for utilities "would grant the utility authority to enter property and perform maintenance on its infrastructure, including vegetation management, when necessary for safety or reliability purposes.
"This legislation is not uncommon across the country and in fact exists in several provinces," the utility noted.
In any case, the company said it would also ask permission first before doing work on private land.
When asked about this same issue in late 2023, former energy minister Steven Myers raised concerns about the rights of private property owners, and said whatever changes were to be made would take time.
Interest costs building up
Maritime Electric, which is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Fortis Inc., applied to IRAC in November 2023 to raise electricity rates on P.E.I. to recoup the roughly $37 million the utility spent to restore power after Fiona. IRAC still has not ruled on whether the rate increase can go ahead.
In the meantime, interest costs continue to accrue on those expenses. In its initial application, Maritime Electric calculated those costs at $2.37 million up until February 2024, averaging about $170,000 per month.
In its report, EA Technology said it believed Maritime Electric's costs had been "prudently accrued" — a requirement under the Electric Power Act for costs to be passed onto customers through a rate increase.
But the report also raised questions about what Maritime Electric has been prepared to do pre- and post-Fiona in order to build a more resilient electrical grid — for example, by burying some lines or building others to a higher construction standard.
"The organization should develop a cohesive long-term, forward-looking asset-management strategy designed to build system resilience," the authors concluded.
The report also questions whether Maritime Electric's emergency-response planning reflects the increasing "magnitude, severity and frequency of adverse weather events" or considers the possibility that in future, calls for mutual aid from other utilities may go unanswered, if those utilities themselves are also dealing with the effects of adverse weather.
"It may now be the time for Maritime Electric to consider how they will be able to deliver a timely and effective emergency response into the future, and the possibility that existing mutual aid … may be unable to provide what Maritime Electric need."
Maritime Electric told CBC News it has expanded its incident command system (ICS) model as part of efforts to increase its capacity to respond to extreme weather events.
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