2023 Sustainability Report 2023 Climate Transition Plan Update

Solar development is providing material cost benefits to Tampa Electric customers while helping to reduce CO₂ emissions.

Solar generation reduces our use of fuel to generate electricity, lowering fuel costs for customers. Also, while the price of other fuel sources can cause bills to fluctuate, the cost of solar power is consistent and predictable. Since 2017, solar generation has saved Tampa Electric customers approximately $200 million in fuel costs.

Four new solar projects were brought into service in 2023, bringing Tampa Electric’s total solar generation capacity to over 1,250 MW. Two more solar projects are expected to be online by the end of 2024, adding another 100 MW of capacity.

In 2023, Nova Scotia Power released its Path to 2030 report capturing the utility’s plan for moving off coal and reaching 80 per cent renewable electricity sales by 2030. The document is based on the foundational work completed as part of Nova Scotia Power’s 2023 Evergreen Integrated Resource Plan and is aligned with the Government of Nova Scotia’s 2030 Clean Power Plan.

The Path to 2030 provides clarity around the projects and initiatives that will enable Nova Scotia Power to achieve ambitious climate goals while maintaining safe, reliable service. This includes expanding the use of wind and solar energy, adding grid-scale battery storage, undertaking additional grid stability and reliability upgrades, putting in place new transmission infrastructure, and other initiatives.

“This transition will require significant investments from multiple parties, and it will take all of us, the provincial and federal governments, Indigenous communities, stakeholders and partners, working together to get there,” says Nova Scotia Power CEO Peter Gregg.

In 2023, Nova Scotia experienced unprecedented, significant wildfires and severe rainfall. Nova Scotia Power has taken steps to reduce the potential impacts extreme weather events like these can have on its infrastructure.

The team continues to identify and enhance wildfire risk reduction measures. These include performing drone and helicopter inspections during wildfire conditions, ensuring a wide perimeter around substations is cleared of vegetation, satellite monitoring of vegetation conditions, installing nest deterrents and animal guards on transmission equipment and at substations, and targeted replacement of uninsulated conductors.

To better protect assets from overland flooding, Nova Scotia Power is investing in its hydroelectric dams and other water control equipment (such as gates and hoists); thermal fleet projects, such as ash capping, to divert surface water and lessen the burden on containment ponds; and installing underground pumping equipment to better protect underground infrastructure from the potential impacts of flooding.

The team also completed a coastal flood study at its Tufts Cove Generating Station to understand the risk and potential impact of sea level rise and storm surge in the coming decades. The study examined 20 different scenarios to help identify coastal protection projects for the site.

Tampa Electric and Nova Scotia Power have received national accolades for their respective storm preparedness programs.

Tampa Electric is the first utility in Florida to be recognized as StormReady by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The designation is based on Tampa Electric’s storm preparedness, including year-round training, written plans, facilities, communication with employees and community partners, as well as how the company monitors weather and how it receives and shares severe weather warnings.

Along with peers, Nova Scotia Power received the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) Emergency Response Award in 2023. Award recipients were chosen by a panel of judges following an international nomination process. The award recognizes the significant recovery and mutual assistance efforts after Hurricane Fiona made landfall in Nova Scotia. Through the North Atlantic Mutual Aid Group, Nova Scotia Power was assisted by crews from United Illuminating in Connecticut and Central Maine Power. The award was presented to all three utilities for their coordinated response.

We know strong safety leadership is essential to building and maintaining a robust safety culture.

One of the ways we demonstrate this leadership is through safety engagements — activities that demonstrate a leader’s commitment to safety by driving safety conversations and creating opportunities for coaching and learning. Examples of safety engagements can include risk assessments, safety observations, compliance checks and meaningful participation on a safety committee.

To reinforce our commitment to strong safety leadership, we took steps to increase safety leadership engagements across the business in 2023. We included an objective on our corporate scorecard to increase the number of safety engagements completed by senior management. As a result of this focus, we nearly tripled the number of leadership safety engagements in 2023, compared to the previous year.

By intentionally emphasizing safety leadership, we’re setting the right tone at the top. We’ll continue to build on this progress, reinforcing our strong safety culture across Emera.

When Emera’s Emerging Leader Program was launched as a pilot project at Peoples Gas in 2023, Dylan Blake, a Gas Construction Inspector, didn’t know what to expect.

“The program has equipped me with the essential tools to effectively fulfill a leadership role,” says Dylan. “It really reinforced the importance of inclusivity, collaboration and open dialogue.”

Dylan, along with 12 of his colleagues, took part in 18 hours of learning over a four-month period. They learned about career navigation, the leadership mindset, effective communication and other leadership essentials to become the program’s first graduating class.

“It’s about preparing our workforce for growth, innovation and the clean energy transition and developing our leaders of tomorrow,” says Kellie Stevens Perry, Emera’s Manager of Learning and Development, who led the program’s creation. “It’s for anyone who aspires to potentially move into people management,” says Kellie. “It’s a valuable opportunity to learn before moving into a leadership role.”

Emerging Leader is the first learning program at Emera to be developed in-house, starting with the needs assessment right through to delivery and evaluation. The program is now being offered company-wide as part of Emera’s Leadership Academy, a core leadership development program that aligns learning with our leadership competencies.

Second-year university student Cierrah is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

“Without the PREP Academy, I probably wouldn’t have had the motivation to go to university,” she says.

The PREP Academy is a non-profit organization that supports post-secondary success for African Nova Scotian students. The organization’s College & University Cohort Program provides support, guidance and mentoring as students like Cierrah navigate their options after high school.

“They have scholarships, different opportunities and people they could ask to help me figure out what I wanted to do.”

At Emera, we share a commitment to building a more inclusive and sustainable future, and it’s stories like these that inspired us to renew our partnership with the PREP Academy in 2023.

Our contribution is helping to support over 100 African Nova Scotian students to set and achieve academic goals through workshops, mentoring and special events. As a cohort, students move through the program with their peers, building strong relationships and fostering a sense of belonging.

The PREP Academy also offers professional development and career training, including job shadowing and mentorship opportunities at Emera.

Shawn Winters was among 75 Emera and Nova Scotia Power team members to take part in a KAIROS Blanket Exercise at Emera Place in 2023.

“It was enlightening and very impactful,” says Shawn, a Planning Supervisor, Hydro and Wind at Nova Scotia Power. “I left with a very heavy heart after hearing stories of survival and devastation of communities through separation of families and forced relocation.”

Led by Mi’kmaq facilitators and Elders, the exercise is a participatory group activity that advances learning about the injustices and impacts of colonization. David Ladouceur, a member of Nova Scotia Power’s Mi’kmaq Relations team, contributed to facilitating the sessions.

“The immersive experience of the Blanket Exercise connects us more personally to our own role in reconciliation,” says Carol Dayment, Emera’s Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Monique Field, Emera’s Manager of Corporate Logistics, says, “I am truly thankful and will be forever grateful for having had the opportunity to participate in a Blanket Exercise. I am glad I decided it is my responsibility to learn more about Mi’kmaq history first-hand from the Mi’kmaq people.”

In 2023, we were proud to support our communities through our refreshed community investment focus areas: youth opportunities, innovation and entrepreneurships, and planet and sustainability.

We’re helping to create youth opportunities at Nova Scotia Power through our partnership with the Clean Foundation Leadership Conference — a three-day event connecting approximately 150 interns with professionals in the clean energy sector.

Our contribution to the Tampa Bay Wave, an innovation accelerator that supports entrepreneurship, is an example of how we’re helping to drive innovation and entrepreneurship. The centre provides programs and resources, including access to more than 200 mentors and more than 400 investors. In the last 10 years, the Wave has supported 450 startups that have collectively attracted investment of over $700 million USD and created more than 4,200 jobs.

Just as we build a cleaner energy future for our customers, we’re also focused on caring for the planet and sustainability though our community giving efforts. In 2023, we were proud to support Hope Blooms, a Halifax-based, youth-driven organization focused on food security, social inclusion and education. Emera’s $100,000 contribution is supporting their Green Labs STEM education initiative, a program that will teach over 200 youth over the next two years about renewable energy, sustainable food production and organic gardening, and the science behind it.

Tampa Electric completed Year Three of a five-year annual monitoring program of Southeastern American Kestrels, a state-designated threatened species of falcon.

The monitoring is taking place at two of Tampa Electric’s solar generation sites. The team installed perch poles and nest boxes to support breeding. In 2023, the monitoring showed that five of the 10 nest boxes were used by breeding pairs of kestrels and 17 viable chicks were produced. In total, 52 viable chicks were produced in the first three years of monitoring, an early indication that the sites may provide ideal habitat to support the Southeastern American Kestrel population.