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COMMENTARY: Maritime Electric wants $353 million and a blank cheque for more 

Islanders have been told they face a simple choice: two new diesel turbines in Charlottetown, or the lights go out. That framing is designed to make the decision feel inevitable. It isn’t. Maritime Electric’s own filings before the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission show a company that hasn’t proven this is the best deal; it’s just the one they picked.

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Maritime Electric wants $353 million for these turbines. At the company’s own earlier estimate, that’s roughly $101 a year on the average household’s bill, and that’s the good-case number. If diesel costs more, if the turbines run more than planned, or if future rules make them pricier to operate, Islanders pay for that too. And if the world moves on before these generators reach the end of their expected life, Maritime Electric has told the commission it will ask to recover the leftover cost from customers as well. Shareholders are protected either way.

IRAC hired its own expert, Synapse Energy Economics, to check the math. Synapse compared 100 megawatts of battery storage with........

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