Nova Scotia Power announced on Tuesday that current president and CEO Peter Gregg will be departing his current role and taking on a new position within Emera Inc., the utility’s multinational parent company.
Gregg will officially be replaced by incoming president and CEO Vivek Sood, a Nova Scotia Power board member who also has 20 years of experience working with Sobeys and Empire. Gregg’s new role will be as Executive Vice President, Strategy and Policy with Emera Inc.
As many of its over 500,000 customers are aware, Nova Scotia Power has been weathering a nasty storm over the last year. While their poor public perception can largely be attributed to a cyberattack last March, resulting in the loss of hundreds of thousands of customers’ personal information, they have also been eyeing a rate change of 3.8 percent as of Jan. 1, 2026 and 4.1 percent on Jan. 1, 2027. This rate change would net the utility $180 million in revenue over the next two years. It has yet to be approved by the provincial energy regulator.
The utility argues for this rate change while customers report highly inaccurate bills, sometimes over three or four times the regular amount, due to power usage estimations. Nova Scotia Power says the automatic billing system has been down since the cyberattack, expecting the system to be fully restored by the end of March 2026.
Nova Scotia Power is in deep trouble. The utility is in the process of paying off almost $35 million in damages from Hurricane Fiona—which it expects customers to pay off through its proposed rate increase—and is teetering on yet another credit rating hit, which could lead to the company defaulting on some of its financial agreements while making new borrowing even more expensive, according to CBC.
A credit rating decrease may result in even higher costs for consumers, with a consultant stating that the utility could have to pay more than $25 million per year, and possibly more in the future. All while some customers are avoiding paying their electric bills due to the inflated prices that, to some, seem wholly incorrect.
Premier Tim Houston has come out against this rate change, as have the leaders of all of Nova Scotia’s political parties. The provincial department of energy has also requested that the regulator reject the rate change.
Now, the Nova Scotia Energy Board, the province’s energy regulator, will be conducting two inquiries into the company: one regarding the technical aspects of the cybersecurity breach and another into the storage of customer data and how the company estimated bills after its meter system gave out.
Meanwhile, the man at the helm of Nova Scotia Power’s unmitigated disasters, Peter Gregg, continues up the corporate ladder while a board member takes over in his stead.
Vivek Sood will have a rough road ahead of him.