2023 Integrated Resource Plan: Pathways to a Net-Zero Electricity System
NB Power has achieved an over 70 per cent greenhouse gas reduction from 2005 levels
While efforts to reduce emissions to date are encouraging, we recognize the threats of climate change and that there is still much more work to do to limit the effects.
Our 2023 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP): Pathways to a Net-Zero Electricity System represents our new long-term plan for New Brunswick’s energy supply and demand, showing 16 different pathways for achieving a net-zero electricity system by 2035. This plan will work together with our new Strategic Plan: Energizing our Future to establish NB Power’s overall direction for the future.
The IRP outlines how New Brunswickers are expected to use power and what sources will be used to meet those needs, based on the best available information of today.
The plan follows three core principles:
- Least-cost planning
- Economic and environmental sustainability
- Risk management
The IRP also addresses key questions that New Brunswickers have asked, including:
- How do we get to net-zero with and without the Mactaquac Generating Station?
- How do we get to net-zero with and without small modular reactors?
- How do we get to net-zero with or without large transmission projects such as the Atlantic Loop?
The IRP provides a view of numerous pathways toward a net-zero electricity system. Achieving net-zero will require new carbon-free generation projects such as :
- Mactaquac Life Achievement Project
- Small modular reactors
- Belledune fuel conversion
- New wind
- New solar and new battery storage projects
The IRP was informed by an extensive engagement process between summer 2022 and spring 2023 that included a variety of New Brunswickers, First Nations, and key stakeholders to better understand what matters most when considering the province’s energy future.
NB Power is required to update the IRP at least every three years to reflect new technology, new policies, and changes in customer expectations and demand. Once updated and approved, as per the Electricity Act, NB Power submits the IRP to the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board (EUB), which was done on July 28, 2023.
Learn more about our public engagement campaign in the ‘What Was Said’ report.
