Nova Scotia Power will appoint finance executive Chris Smith as president and CEO Nov. 2 after CEO Vivek Sood chose not to renew his contract less than a year into the role.
The utility announced the change Oct. 27 and gave no reason for Sood’s decision. He took office March 1, succeeding Peter Gregg, who moved to a role with parent company Emera Inc.
Nova Scotia Power is wholly owned by Emera and supplies electricity to about 550,000 customers. It is regulated by the Nova Scotia Energy Board. Smith joined the utility in 2017 and is its executive vice-president of finance and commercial. He previously served as president of Heritage Gas, now Eastward Energy.
Board Chair Scott Balfour said Smith would support the new Nova Scotia Independent Energy System Operator as it takes on responsibilities involving generation and system planning. Balfour said reliability and customer costs would remain priorities, and called Smith a “proven leader.”
The Nova Scotia Energy Board set a 3.1% residential rate increase effective May 1, followed by another 3.9% increase scheduled for Jan. 1, 2027. The board cited higher service costs, more service requests and expenses tied to operating more renewable resources. It also reduced or disallowed some costs Nova Scotia Power sought to pass on to customers.
Nova Scotia Power said in a compliance letter posted by the federal privacy commissioner that the 2025 cyberattack affected about 375,000 current customers and 540,000 former customers. Nova Scotia Power’s compliance letter says the breach was discovered April 25, 2025, and that compromised information varied by person. It could include contact details, account histories, driver’s license numbers and Social Insurance Numbers. Nova Scotia Power said in the compliance letter that no evidence had emerged as of March 18, 2026, that the sensitive data had been made public or sold. Nova Scotia Power committed to provide the commissioner with a confidential report from an independent security assessment firm by Oct. 31, 2026.
