Proposal for electricity in New Brunswick

Launched on Earth Day 2025!

A summary in PDF form is available here.

New Brunswickers urgently need more affordable, reliable and cleaner electricity as we head into an uncertain future. In response, CRED-NB has developed a plan for electricity generation that includes guideposts and key steps for provincial policy-makers. We welcome feedback: info@crednb.ca

Vision

We envision a New Brunswick electricity system that provides affordable power solely from clean non-emitting renewable energy. The guideposts for our vision include the following.

• No greenhouse gas or toxic emissions from power generation.
• Local communities participate in electricity project decisions and benefits.  (i.e. energy democracy)
• Residents have affordable power prices.
• Businesses have power rates which allow them to operate competitively.
• NB Power has restored its debt-to-equity ratio.

Key Steps

The Government of New Brunswick should direct the appropriate government departments and NB Power to deploy policies and programs to ensure the completion of these keys steps.

• Engage communities in developing a provincial electricity strategy.
• Implement programs to accelerate the thermal retrofit of buildings and the use of heat pumps as building heating is a primary cause of high power demand.
• Encourage communities to support local power generation for efficiency and robustness.
• Establish a Renewable Energy Development program to help community representatives and project proponents navigate the development process.
• Train local workers with the skills needed to create and operate renewable energy sources and storage sites.
• Deploy wind and solar power as needed to retire non-renewable sources of power.
• Use modern renewable energy techniques to ensure reliability by
  • diversifying power generation (by location, type and jurisdiction),
  • fully integrating distributed energy sources (e.g. rooftop solar),
  • using short and long duration storage, and
  • implementing customer controlled automatic demand-side management¹.

Retirement of NB Power Generators

Note:  When NB Power sought public support for the refurbishment of Mactaquac in 2016 the cost of wind, solar and storage was far higher than it is today. Building wind, solar and storage is likely to be more economic, faster, and less risky than undertaking the Mactaquac refurbishment mega-project.

Remove the dirtiest and most expensive electricity generators first:

• Retire Belledune generating station, whether coal-fired or wood-fired, by 2030.
• Retire Point Lepreau nuclear generating station by 2032 when the current license expires.
• Retire Coleson Cove oil-fired generating station by 2035.
• Cancel the $9 billion refurbishment of Mactaquac generating station. Retire the station when it is no longer able to operate safely.
• After 2035, restrict the remaining combustion/thermal generating stations to emergency peak demand use only.

Producing Electricity with Renewables

The following electricity generation amounts are based on the 2023-2024 NB Power Statement of In-Province Generation.  The wind power capacity amounts² are for demonstration purposes only. They are based on 8,760 hours per year and a capacity factor of 40%. Wind is the cheapest source of electricity but there are advantages to using a combination of wind and solar.

• Maintain and improve existing hydroelectric power sources where viable to do so
• Coal & petroleum coke produces 1,200 GWh which can be replaced with 340 MW of wind power.
• Nuclear produces 4,800 GWh which can be replaced with 1,360 MW of wind power.
• Heavy fuel oil & diesel produces 96 GWh which can be replaced with 30 MW of wind power.
• Mactaquac produces 2,600 GWh which can be replaced with 740 MW of wind power.

Keeping Power Reliable

Using a range of tools to complement wind and solar ensures both a highly reliable and low-cost electricity system. These technologies are better than gas-fired power plants for handling peak demands as they can react faster, have zero-emissions and have lower costs.

• Use automatic demand-side management (ADSM) to reduce the need for power at peak times. This can provide several MW of power flexibility especially by implementing modern ADSM tools.
• Plan to trade transient wind & solar power surpluses with neighbouring jurisdictions.
• Use battery storage systems for short duration uses of up to a few hours and ancillary services such as frequency regulation. The typical technology used is cobalt-free lithium-ion batteries.
• Use distributed battery storage systems to economically access locally owned battery storage. An example is vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology which allows electric vehicles owners to sell electricity from their vehicle battery when needed to support the grid.
• Use long duration storage for large amounts of dispatchable electricity for several hours of discharge. An example technology is compressed air energy storage in underground salt caverns.
• Use seasonal storage for holding very large amounts of energy until needed during peak load times such as the winter heating period. An example technology is green hydrogen storage in underground salt caverns as underground storage is very inexpensive.

Using these technologies instead of adding gas-fired peaker power plants ensures emissions and costs continue to go down.

Financial Stability for NB Power

• Increase sales through campaign to electrify transportation, building heating, and industrial heating.
• Use the low cost of wind energy to increase profits, especially for power exports.
• Make New Brunswick an energy storage and balancing hub for the northeastern grid.

Updated: April 22, 2025

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