On September 9, 2026, the Government of Nova Scotia introduced Bill 263: the Performance-based Regulation Review Act, which begins the process of developing a performance-based regulation for some public utilities in Nova Scotia. The legislation received Royal Assent on September 18, 2026.

How do different regulatory models work for utilities?

Currently, utilities like Nova Scotia Power are regulated by a cost-of-service model. In this common model, a utility determines how much revenue it needs to meet customer demand, reliability and decarbonization targets. In Nova Scotia, the utility’s revenue (or rate request) is then reviewed by Nova Scotia Energy Board and approved (or not) with an additional mark-up for the utility to deliver the energy and services.

Under a performance-based regulatory model, the utility is incentivized to produce better results for ratepayers with revenues increasing for improved performance or decreasing revenues for unacceptable outcomes. In jurisdictions with performance-based regulatory models, utilities can be tracked on different measures such as reliability, customer service, efficiency, and environmental performance.

What is the Performance-based Regulations Review Act?

The Performance-based Regulations Review Act tasks the Nova Scotia Energy Board with independently reviewing performance-based regulatory models and proposing recommendations for the provincial government that weight benefits and risks and are tailored to Nova Scotia’s energy system. Topics the Energy Board will consider include:

  • the protection of ratepayers and the maintenance of reasonable rates;
  • performance measures related to sustainable development, energy efficiency and emissions reductions;
  • performance measures related to efficiency, cost-effectiveness, safety, reliability, resilience, innovation, customer service, quality of system operations, and management
  • impacts on different classes of customers; and,
  • Nova Scotia Power’s opportunity to earn a fair rate of return and how a new model would impact capital spending, cost recovery and risk.

It is unclear today which public utilities the Act will apply to, as these will be recommended following the Energy Boad’s review. It is likely the new rules will apply to Nova Scotia Power. Other potential utilities covered by the changes may include Eastward Energy (a natural gas utility). It is less clear if the changes would apply to municipal electrical utilities or water utilities.

What performance standards are already in place for Nova Scotia Power?

Under Nova Scotia’s current cost-of-service model, Nova Scotia Power is measured annually on 14 performance standards and faces penalties for not meeting targets. These standards cover reliability, adverse weather response, outage call answers, disconnects, restoration times and updates, outage reporting and notification, new connection services, reliability, and customer service. In 2025, Nova Scotia Power met 9 of the 14 standards.

Nova Scotia Power must also meet different provincial and federal emission or renewable energy targets, among others.

Next Steps:

The Nova Scotia Energy Board must begin the review process within 30 days after the Bill comes into force. The Board will consult different stakeholders, but it is unclear how long the review will take. The Board’s final report to government will be made public within 60 days of receipt.

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