About 60 Huntsville-area residents showed up at the Algonquin Theatre last night (September 8) to express their displeasure with electricity supplier Hydro One at a forum with Hydro One Ombudsman Fiona Crean and Parry Sound-Muskoka MPP Norm Miller. Miller was there to address and collect policy-related concerns to take back to Queen’s Park while Crean responded to complaints about the company itself.
Miller launched the forum by saying that electricity is the biggest issue he hears about in his constituency office, particularly regarding rates, delivery charges, affordability and smart meters. He then turned the microphone over to Crean so that she could clarify for the audience what the role of the Hydro One Ombudsman is: ensuring that the customer is treated fairly by the services of Hydro One. Hers is an office of last resort after you’ve exhausted attempts at a solution with the company.
If you’ve got a beef, if you’ve got a problem or a complaint, you need to call the company first. Give them a chance to explain why they’ve done what they’ve done or correct the error… Then if you remain dissatisfied you can come and complain to the Ombudsman’s office.
Fiona Crean, Hydro One Ombudsman
She noted that there are two exceptions: if you get no reply or explanation from Hydro One, or if there is a particularly vulnerable person involved – a senior with dementia for example – complaints can go direct to the ombudsman’s office.
The pair then opened the floor for questions.
Many of the comments were strikingly similar in tone: people are frustrated, angry and fed up with their Hydro One bills, the service – or lack of it – received when they’ve complained to the company and the lack of transparency and consistency in how they are billed for Hydro One’s electricity services.
Delivery charges
One of the most cited frustrations was with delivery charges and the service types used to determine them – residents in low density areas pay almost double those in high density areas do, and often the delivery charges are significantly more than the energy use portion of the bill.
But as one woman noted, it’s not a consistent determination. She’s on a different line than her neighbour directly across the highway and pays a higher delivery rate charge as a result. Her exceedingly high hydro bills have caused her to put her house up for sale.
I feel like we are not customers of Hydro One, we are hostages… We have no choice. Why is there no competition?
Hydro One customer, to applause from the audience
Miller acknowledged that affordability of electricity is an issue and a big concern in Parry Sound-Muskoka where the average income is below that of the provincial average. He referenced the Ontario Auditor General’s 2015 report (see the PDF here) to say that consumers are paying for waste in the electricity system including higher costs for renewable energy electricity projects and the cost of cancelled projects.
Smart meters
Hydro One’s smart meters were another common complaint. Some noted that their electricity bills rose significantly after the introduction of the meters. Another said that, with Hydro One usually replying that the meters are always right, she’d like to know how consumers can check for themselves how accurate their readings are. One woman took the extreme step of unplugging everything in her house for days to determine the effect on her readings – she said there was none.
Crean noted that smart meter data is transmitted via a wireless communication network and that “nine times out of 10 when people say their smart meter isn’t working it actually isn’t a problem of the meter it’s a problem of communicating. If you’re not satisfied with the company’s answers, you need to call us about that.”
One man, who said he works in the industry, suggested that the new digital meters are actually reading both sides of the circuit, effectively double-billing the consumer. He said he has contacted Miller’s office who has passed along his concerns, “to an office that wouldn’t acknowledge that there’s an issue with the meters.”
Critical customers
A woman in the audience noted that there are many people who are disabled or have medical equipment that relies on electricity and expressed concern that those among them on fixed incomes were at increased risk if they couldn’t pay their Hydro One bills.
Crean mentioned the existence of a “vital signs form” that can be completed by a customer’s doctor and which would flag them as critical customers whose power could not be disconnected. A physician in the audience who works with patients in palliative care said she had never been asked to complete a form and suggested that many people don’t know it exists.
[Doppler could find no mention of the form or a related policy on the Hydro One website. Contact Hydro One’s customer service department if this situation describes you (and the ombudsman’s office if you don’t receive a satisfactory reply).]More information
There were many more questions and complaints at the forum than can be noted here, and answers are still pending for some. Multiple times Crean requested the name and phone number of speakers in the audience so that she could follow up for more information, as their specific questions and complaints were more complex than could be addressed at the forum.
For more information on the role of the Hydro One Ombudsman and to learn how to submit a complaint, visit www.HydroOneOmbudsman.com. Questions and comments on policy issues can be directed to MPP Norm Miller’s office at [email protected].
The Office of the Hydro One Ombudsman opened in March of 2016. Following a new law passed in the fall of 2015, Crean was appointed by Hydro One’s independent Board of Directors to be its first Ombudsman.
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Help! We live in a cottage and go away for the winter. this winter, I religiously turned off EVERY breaker I could – except for the one running the propane furnace. So I expected a small monthly bill. Instead I got a bill “50% higher than last year’s” when I had BEEN IN THE PROPERTY.
Insane…. I have called and clled and they say .. “nope // you are using electricy .. How can I be spening 175.00 a month when all the breakers are off, the fridge and stove are unplugged, the Microwaver, teh coffee plt etc, the lights etc. are ALL unplugged??????/
Who can help me?
I need a photo of the Notice that Hydro One Networks put out with electricity bills back about 2009 – 2011. It should say NOTICE on it and then announce their plan to install smart meters. Can anyone help me find it.? I want to have my smart meter removed.
I attended the forum and it was useful. There is a lot of poor information out there however. This is going to sound like an endorsement of Hydro One and smart meters but please read to the end.
While it is true that it is hard for a customer to know if a smart meter is “correct” this is generally true of pretty much all modern technology. One has to back up a bit and look at the situation.
I believe that all devices used for measuring for trade, be they smart meters, or the weigh scale used at Metro, or the gas pump meter that you use at ever fill up and soon to come, the meter on your electric car charger station (No it won’t be free for long!) have to be regulated and tested by the Ministry of Consumer and Commercial relations and Trade, At least this used to be the case but they might have changed the ministry name lately.
In any event over the years these good folks used to test my gas pump regularly. One has to trust that they do their job and the meter is accurate.
As proof of this, I have smart meters at my resort. They read what is called a “central meter location” and this then supplies multiple housing units. In my case I also have the good old analogue (dumb meter as some call it) on each building too. These meters are mine, not Hydro’s, except for the one smart meter.
When I add up my 9 analogue meters and compare their total to what the smart meter reads the result is always exactly the same (within reading error on my old meters) so in this case all the meters agree and the smart meter seems to be shall we say “correct”.
What my dumb meters do not do of course is keep any track of the time of use (TOU) rates, they just read the total kwh. So the smart meter is giving me a great big advantage in rates by giving me the lower rate when it is applicable and so on.
I have 9 Hydro One accounts and my billings have always (as far as I can tell) been spot on for accuracy.
I will admit that to do a full test of TOU would require a data logger at some big cost so I cannot comment too much on the accuracy of this feature except to note that what I am being billed in total seems right and the proportions involved in the TOU rates seem to be logical to a cursory analysis. In short I am afraid my smart meters are all correct.
I do wish I could have all my meters fall into the same billing cycle for times as this would simplify my life and I really don’t see why this can’t be the case.
I also wish there was some way to talk to a person at Hydro One who both understood and had the power to make decisions regarding the various rate classes as I too am stuck with some rate classes that I don’t think are properly applicable any more. Trying to even look at options here is difficult. This process needs to be improved but read on… this process is not Hydro One’s creation.
One has to remember that it is not Hydro One’s choice to do a lot of the accounting and billing the way they do. Rather it is the Provincial government with their oar in the works that is mandating that Hydro do certain things like smart meters. Unfortunately the communication link with smart meters is unreliable at times and some places and Hydro is left with a smart meter that is effectively unable to talk to their computer. To solve this is a problem for sure. Manual readings can be submitted and I think the smart meter will keep a record in it’s memory of TOU amounts that can be electronically queried by a human meter reader. If this is not the case it should be and could easily be made so with a small built in memory card in the smart meter.
Currently Hydro One, for lack of a better option, relies on estimates and a sort of “fall back rate” that tries to take into account what TOU might have charge the customer if it had actually been applied. Imperfect for sure but if you were Hydro One and had been told you “had to install a smart meter” by a certain date, maybe you would have the same problems and maybe you would have to try to solve them the same way Hydro has done. Lets just say that this is a “work in progress” still.
In closing I would note that in general the front line staff at Hydro One, the ones in those white trucks that roam our roads, are friendly, polite, competent and bend over backwards wherever they can to make the customer happy. They seem saddled with many rulers however and those that complain about their speed and efficiency need to remember that when one is handling bare wires carrying tens of thousands of volts it is wise to be methodical, and careful or one will likely end up dead!
From the customer’s point of view however, dealing “officially” with Hydro One can be a bit of the proverbial administrative nightmare. This might just relate to the size of the beast but maybe this can be improved.
By the way, I am set up on automatic payments with all my Hydro One accounts and generally it has worked almost to perfection over the last decade. The very occasional problem has been swiftly solved and again Hydro One was pretty fair and accommodating by swallowing any interest charges and providing a year to make payments for the one account that they messed up at accounting. One could not ask for more than this on their part.
WHAT WE DO DESPERATELY NEED IS A COMPLETE OVERHAUL OF ELECTRIC SUPPLY POLICY AT THE PROVINCIAL LEVEL. The political buck passing and obscurity, lack of transparency and just generally illogical policies that our POLITICAL leaders have foisted upon us all, (at our cost!) is intolerable and stupid and will get us nothing but high costs. It will not serve it’s stated goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions but it will drive business out of Ontario, confuse a lot of us and make us all poorer and this is something we should not have to put up with.
While electricity is the only viable way to look to our future energy use and still meet any kind of fossil fuel emission goals this approach has to be done in such a way that business can still afford to operate in Ontario and people can afford to live here without resorting to a campfire at the mouth of a cave for winter heat!!
We need a much better energy policy for our Province and indeed even our country. Perhaps a change of Provincial government might be a place to start.
I checked my meter yesterday and the online usages. It appears to be correct.
However as one tech guy said at the H.O. Forum, I am sure it is reading both directions, because there is no way I am using the much hydro. Also, (which I need to prove) some time the electrical goes up and we are not even home.
I would love to talk to the guy to get more details.
Nice article, there were a few other queries that evening too; on policy? To Norm Miller, MPP regarding his Opposition Conservative Party with his offer to take questions back to Queen’s Park:
1) if voted in- would Conservative’s repeal the Green Energy Act, and what is their position on the energy file and our home grown expert technology in nuclear?
2) An explanation ask; why the PC Harris government started the ball rolling for privatization and subsequent Liberal governments continued?
3) Why does the provincial Act favour, encourage and allow private companies to solicit municipal approval without public involvement, hence Bala Falls, and near miss Port Sydney?
To Fiona Crean, Ombudsman Hydro One:
1). What are the powers of the office and
2). When will the report be public?
The answer to both: Only to recommend; which has informal influence, (FYI-right now NB is challenging an auditors report and this has been done in other jurisdictions by Ministers responsible for “investigative recommended reports” ); There’s no report on these forums, the next report of the office’s investigations will be released in the spring.
This office may offer a good investigative look into our utility, Hydro One but is newly created with all that entails. What about the rest of the Utilities not covered by this Ombudsman – Ombudsperson?
Our complaints directed to Hydro One are being handled by staff that is obviously newly trained in the handling of irate customers, but have no power or authority to make any changes. Firstly, ask to speak to a Manager, or someone WITH authority. This may not help much because we in rural Ontario have done everything Hydro One has asked of us to conserve energy and we still get hit with constant increases, but it is still worth a try – and don’t take “no” for an answer from the person to whom you are speaking – push for it! Seems we may also be speaking with the wrong group, as the last increase was explained by the Ontario Energy Board as necessary because they had “a shortfall in cash” OF COURSE YOU DID AS WE ARE USING LESS AS PER HYDRO ONE’S REQUESTS, THEREFORE PAYING A BIT LESS – NOT ROCKET SCIENCE! What is the purpose of punishing rural home owners? Forcing them to sell their properties so you can install wind turbines and solar panels on the now vacant land? You had better hope this is not on the agenda!