Nova Scotia’s Utility and Review Board has approved a $500-million bailout the federal government offered Nova Scotia Power two months ago.

In a decision released Friday, the board concluded Ottawa’s loan guarantee would “benefit customers by mitigating the potentially significant rate pressures in the near term that would otherwise occur absent this commercial arrangement.”

The decision went on to say the board “concludes that approving the application is in the public interest.”

Friday’s decision is tied to another application by Nova Scotia Power to determine the impact the loan guarantee would have on rates.

In that filing, Nova Scotia Power told the board that without the federal bailout its customers would see an average rate increase of 19.2 per cent. With the bailout, next year’s average increase would be 2.4 per cent.

That’s the price to consumers to cover the $42.4 million the utility will pay as the first instalment of a 28-year payback period for the loan.

The UARB is expected to rule on that application early next year.

Nova Scotia Power has been shouldering a growing fuel bill because of delays in getting power from the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric plant in Labrador.

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