Following recent disagreements with Maritime Electric over power rates, the fate of the City of Summerside’s argument is in the hands of the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission (IRAC).
Greg Gaudet, the director of municipal services, says the city doesn’t disagree with all of what Maritime Electric discussed at the recent IRAC meetings, but, rather, what is included in the costs and its justification arguments for wind rates.
“The reason why the City of Summerside has intervened in this case is that staff believe that Maritime Electric is asking Summerside Electric more than its fair share for the services it receives from their network.”
The city and its taxpayer-owned Summerside Electric believe there is no justification given by Maritime Electric to rationalize a decreased rate for the wind industry on P.E.I. to export power, said Gaudet.
“It’s not that we don’t believe that ‘postage stamp’ isn’t fair, but what costs should be included to determine the cost of the stamp.”
Postage stamp refers to one cost across the board for all regions of P.E.I. because there is one transmission system and the entire Island falls under it.
“Maritime Electric believes everything should be thrown into one melting pot and that determines the stamp price. Our belief is that postage stamp is more concise to make up the price and they are including too many things to determine their price of service.”
In a recent interview Maritime Electric spokeswoman Kim Griffin said if the city wasn’t charged the same rate as others, Maritime Electric would have to collect those costs from all the other customers on P.E.I.
“All of those costs are born by our customers on Prince Edward Island. You can’t just take a piece of it and just pay for that.”
For the most part, Summerside Electric agrees with Maritime Electric’s Open Access Transmission Tariff calculation other than two fundamental points.
“We believe that it’s fair, open and transparent and there is no special treatment and that you use just part of (the system) and pay part of it,” Griffin said.
The decision is in the process of being evaluated by IRAC.
