P.E.I. commission approves $16M to Maritime Electric for Hurricane Fiona recovery

Crews work to restore power on Prince Edward Island following post-tropical storm Fiona. (Maritime Electric/Twitter)

Hurricane Fiona wreaked havoc on Prince Edward Island more than three years ago, and the province’s public utility is still trying to financially recover from the high costs of responding to that natural disaster.

On Dec. 5, the P.E.I. Regulatory and Appeals Commission approved a $16-million “equity injection” for Maritime Electric to stabilize its finances as it copes with the prolonged fallout of the hurricane.

“In support of its request for approval of the equity injection, (Maritime Electric) submits that the scale of infrastructure restoration following Fiona significantly increased capital requirements in 2023-2025, resulting in a temporary deviation from its capital structure,” the written decision from the commission reads. “In other words, the costs (Maritime Electric) incurred in those years required a significant capital spend.

“(Maritime Electric) states that proposed equity injection is necessary to restore financial stability, support ongoing capital investment, and maintain the utility’s debt-to-equity ratios within acceptable thresholds.”

Hurricane Fiona landed on P.E.I. on Sept. 23, 2022, extensively damaging the province’s coastline and electrical infrastructure. The provincial government said more than 79,000 acres of forest areas were affected blowdowns, which caused losses for many of the Island’s 16,000 private woodlot owners.

In a post-mortem report on the event released in early 2023, Maritime Electric said the storm caused outages for roughly 83,200 customers. Power was restored to approximately 50 per cent of customers within four days, but restoration efforts continued until Oct. 14, 2022.

The restoration costs were roughly $34.6 million.

“This was the largest storm response in Maritime Electric’s history utilizing 205 line crews, 59 vegetation management crews and other supporting resources such as Canadian Armed Forces personnel, damage assessors, field supervisors, and traffic control personnel at the height of the restoration effort,” the report reads. “The Company was well prepared and implemented best practices learned from previous weather events including post-tropical storm Dorian in 2019.”

According to the decision from the Regulatory and Appeals Commission, Maritime Electric initially requested an equity injection of $14 million to restore its capital structure in November 2023, but it revised its request to $16 million last September.

It noted its capital structure has “continued to deteriorate” since that initial application.

“(Maritime Electric) reported that the equity component of its capital structure declined from 39.1% as of December 31, 2021, to 35.9% as of August 31, 2025, and further submitted that, without corrective action, there is a significant risk that the equity component will fall below the legislated 35% by December 2025,” the decision reads.

“(Maritime Electric) submits that the revised amount of $16 million would increase the equity component of its capital structure to approximately 38%, placing it near the middle of the legislated 35%-40% equity range and mitigating the risk of the Company falling below the statutory minimum.”

The commission said it was satisfied the application was “prudent, reasonable, and in the public interest.” It also noted it has made no findings regarding the recovery of restoration costs or any rate adjustments, as those matters remain under active review.

“For clarity, the Commission’s approval of (Maritime Electric’s) requested equity injection does not authorize any changes to customer rates,” the decision reads. “Any increase in operating costs arising from (Maritime Electric’s) higher equity level may not be recovered from rate payers at this time.”

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