Call Nova Scotia Power at 1-800-428-6230 or open an account at nspower.ca with your civic address, PID and move date. There is no retailer to pick. The only twist: if you are moving to Antigonish, Berwick, Lunenburg, Mahone Bay or Riverport, the town utility opens your account instead.
Open, move or close a Nova Scotia Power account here, or do it online at nspower.ca. Most meters are smart meters, so the final and opening reads happen remotely.
Save this before you move in. If the power is out at the new home, report it to Nova Scotia Power here, or use the town's after-hours line if you are in a town utility.
Check the town utilities first if your address is in one. Calling Nova Scotia Power for an Antigonish or Lunenburg address wastes a call and can delay your connection. Confirm which utility serves your exact address before you book anything.
Why this is simpler than it looks (and where it is not)
In a deregulated province, moving means choosing a retailer, comparing plans, and worrying about contract terms. Nova Scotia is not that. Residential electricity is supplied by Nova Scotia Power as a regulated monopoly, so there is no retailer to select and no plan to compare. Setting up or transferring service is a single contact: customer service at 1-800-428-6230 or the online account at nspower.ca. That is the whole transaction for the vast majority of addresses.
The one place the simplicity breaks is the five town-owned utilities. In Antigonish, Berwick, Lunenburg, Mahone Bay and Riverport, the town runs its own electric utility and bills its own residents directly. If your new address sits inside one of those, you open the account with the town, not with Nova Scotia Power. The mechanics are the same, but the phone number and the bill come from the town office.
Set up your service, in order
Follow this sequence and the lights are on the day you arrive. The whole thing takes one short interaction once you have the details ready.
Check whether the address is in one of the five town utilities (Antigonish, Berwick, Lunenburg, Mahone Bay, Riverport). If it is, you deal with the town; if not, it is Nova Scotia Power. Getting this right first avoids a wasted call.
Have the civic address, the property PID, your move date, and your ID and contact details ready. With these in hand the account opens in one short interaction.
Contact Nova Scotia Power at 1-800-428-6230 (or nspower.ca), or the town utility, and give a couple of business days notice. Allow more time for month-end moves, which are the busiest. Smart meters mean the opening read is taken remotely, so no technician visit is needed.
Ask for a final meter read and a final bill covering the period up to your move date. Your new address starts a separate bill, so the two never overlap. This also stops you paying for the next occupant.
Equal Billing splits the year into twelve equal, interest-free payments and smooths the winter spike. Setting it up at move-in means your first Nova Scotia winter is already levelled out.
The five town exceptions
If your new home is in one of these towns, open the account with the town utility, not Nova Scotia Power. Each row links to the full distributor page. After-hours numbers are for outages outside business hours.
Your move-day checklist
Everything that needs to be true before, on, and just after move day. Tick these off and nothing slips through.
Nova Scotia Power for most addresses, or the town utility for the five exceptions.
A couple of business days notice, more for month-end moves.
Final read and final bill to the move date; the new address starts a separate bill.
Civic address, property PID, move date, ID and contact details.
Opt in at setup if you want the winter spike spread across twelve interest-free payments.
1-877-428-6004 for Nova Scotia Power, or the town after-hours line.
Move-out: closing the old account cleanly
The move-out half matters as much as the move-in. When you close the old account, ask for a final meter read and a final bill covering the period up to your move date. Because most homes have smart meters, that read is taken remotely, so there is no need to wait for a technician or to take a photo of the dial yourself. Your new address starts a separate bill from the day you take over, so the old and new accounts never overlap and you are never billed for the next occupant's usage.
If your previous winters arrived as a series of uncomfortable spikes, the move is the natural moment to switch the new account to Equal Billing: twelve equal, interest-free payments that level the year out. It does not change the total you pay, only the rhythm, but for a household budgeting month to month that rhythm is the difference between a manageable winter and a January shock.
If the power is out when you arrive
Occasionally you turn the key and nothing happens. First confirm the account is actually open for your move date, then check whether it is a wider outage rather than your home alone. For Nova Scotia Power addresses, the outage line is 1-877-428-6004. If you are in one of the five town utilities, use that town's after-hours number from the cards above. Saving the right number to your phone before move day means you are not hunting for it in the dark on the first night.
