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The new CEO of Nova Scotia’s private electric utility says the firm has hit milestones on its recovery from last year’s cyberattack and is turning its attention to rebuilding trust with customers.
Vivek Sood, who became the CEO of Nova Scotia Power in early March, says the utility has reconnected its systems to every smart meter in the province after a cyber attack disrupted communications a year ago. The issue caused the utility to estimate power usage, with many customers complaining their bills jumped significantly after the attack.
“Now that (the meters are) back online and the data is being collected, we can true up the billing and work with customers,” Sood told reporters Tuesday.
“What we’ve said all along is nobody’s going to pay any interest, nobody’s going to be disconnected. We will be patient and work out how we bring this all together and get customers to a place where we do our best to meet their expectations.”
Sood is taking over the leadership at NS Power at a critical time for the utility. Not only is its reputation under fire from frustrated customers, it also faces political resistance from Premier Tim Houston over its plans to hike rates.
Nova Scotia Power has faced multiple investigations, legal threats and complaints from customers and politicians since the cyberattack last year impacted bills and saw the personal data of 280,000 customers accessed, including thousands of social insurance numbers (SINs). Former CEO Peter Gregg, who Sood replaced, said the attack was likely by a Russia-based actor.
Sood says the company has deleted all customer SIN numbers it had on file, a commitment it made to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Nova Scotia Power was using SINs for verification purposes, but no longer does so, said Sood.
The former longtime executive of Nova Scotia-based grocer Sobeys and its parent firm, Empire Company, says the utility has beefed up its cybersecurity with system enhancements, more training and education and heightened awareness of world events that might trigger an attack. It’s also having third parties assess its practices. He said Nova Scotia Power will be as transparent as possible about its progress, reporting information to the Nova Scotia Energy Board.
Sood says trust is earned, not given, and acknowledges the utility has a lot of work to do, including fixing inflated bills. He said part of rebuilding that trust was meeting the company’s self-imposed deadline to have billing meters reconnected by March 31, as well as the privacy’s commissioner’s deadline to delete customer SINs in its systems by the same date.
“And when we say something we deliver it,” Sood said. “We deliver the benefits, all of those things that are so important. That’s how we’re going to earn trust. It is not going to happen overnight. It’s not going to happen because I’m a new CEO. It’s going to happen because we get things done.”
The utility is still stickhandling its way through a contentious rate increase process which has largely been approved by the regulator, with some caveats. The regulator says those are expected to slightly decrease the amount power rates will increase.
Nova Scotia Power was seeking one hike of 3.8 per cent retroactive to Jan. 1, and another on Jan. 1, 2027 worth another 4.1 per cent. A final determination is expected within a month.
The company is also seeking the ability to “securitize” three of its existing coal-burning power plants, worth a combined $704 million, which it plans to retire in favour of renewable options. Securitization is a complex financial plan that would result in lower financing costs for the utility. Without it, the Nova Scotia Energy Board says expenses charged to customers would climb by about $26.6 million a year.
“We can’t overburden today’s generation with that cost, so we can spread it over time,” said Sood.
“It doesn’t create a big burden for future generations either, because it’s paid off consistently over time, so that allows us to get to where we want to be in the future with renewables and address (that) we’ve been burning coal for a long period of time.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 31, 2026.
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