Ontario Energy Board wants to hear from consumers about Hydro One’s electricity rate application
Community Meeting scheduled for July 13 in Bracebridge; Ontario-wide tele-meeting on July 12
The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) is holding two more community meetings to give consumers the opportunity to participate in the OEB’s review of Hydro One’s recent application to increase its electricity distribution rates.
The July 13 meeting, taking place in Bracebridge, is one of nine in-person community meetings the OEB has held since June 15 to enable Hydro One customers to learn more and ask questions about the utility’s distribution rate application.
For all customers who were unable to attend the meetings held to date, the OEB is also hosting a province-wide tele-meeting on Wednesday, July 12, 2017 from 6:30-8:30 pm. Customers can call in toll-free 1-800-806-5484 using the passcode 8940608# or send an email to [email protected] for more information.
All Ontario utilities, including Hydro One, must apply to the OEB if they want to change their distribution rates. These are the rates that utilities charge for delivering electricity to homes and businesses – different from the electricity prices that cover the cost of the electricity that consumers use, which appears on the “electricity” line of the bill.
“The OEB helps control costs for all consumers by reviewing and testing the requested rate change through an open, robust and inclusive rate review process,” says Kristi Sebalj, OEB Registrar. “We work hard to keep rates as low as possible while making sure utilities have what they need to keep the lights on.”
For every major electricity rate application it receives, the OEB holds one or more community meetings for consumers served by the utility as part of its commitment to engage, empower and protect consumers.
“This makes it easier for all consumers to learn more about why their utility is asking for a change in rates to cover the costs of serving customers,” Sebalj says. “Consumers can also find out more about how they can have a say in the review process, before, during and after the meeting.”
The Fair Hydro Act, 2017 is expected to reduce electricity bills for Hydro One customers in different ways starting this summer. The amounts requested by Hydro One in its application to the OEB relate to its distribution business and do not reflect any credits or other changes resulting from the Fair Hydro Act, 2017. Any amounts approved by the OEB will not impact the distribution line of the bill of most Hydro One customers, after the Fair Hydro Act credits and changes are applied.
The OEB still has an important role to play in ensuring that Hydro One provides an appropriate level of service quality to their customers at a reasonable cost, and that they are doing everything possible to be more efficient and keep improving. Visit the OEB’s website at www.oeb.ca/newsroom/2017/fair-hydro-act-2017 for an explanation of how the Fair Hydro Act, 2017 will affect customers’ bills.
The OEB Community Meeting in Bracebridge will take place on Thursday, July 13, 2017 at the Bracebridge Sportsplex Auditorium, 110 Clearbrook Trail. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. and presentations will begin at 6:30 p.m. This meeting follows eight others that were held in Leamington, Napanee, Rockland, Owen Sound, Ancaster, Stouffville, Dryden and Sudbury.
Consumers are invited to make brief presentations and participate in the question-and-answer period. Consumers wishing to make a presentation are invited to email [email protected] or call 1-877-632-2727 (toll-free). Meetings are scheduled to end at 8:30 p.m.
Since 2009, the OEB has reviewed more than 130 major rate applications and reduced requested rate increases by an average of about 40 per cent. Overall, the OEB has kept the annual growth in average distribution rates close to the rate of inflation during the same period.
As Ontario’s independent regulator of the energy sector, the OEB makes decisions that serve the public interest. Its goal is to contribute to a sustainable, reliable and efficient energy sector and to help consumers get value from their electricity and natural gas services. This includes:
- Making the OEB’s processes more understandable for consumers and actively seeking consumer input to improve the OEB’s processes and achieve better results
- Setting rules for energy companies and enforcing them
- Working with consumers to facilitate the resolution of complaints they may have about their energy company
- Setting a number of different kinds of rates, including the rates utilities charge to deliver electricity and natural gas to their customers’ homes and businesses.
Since 2016, the OEB has held 23 community meetings. Feedback from these meetings helps inform the OEB’s final rate decisions.
The OEB’s review of Hydro One’s rate application is still in the early stages and will take about a year to complete. For more information, consumers can call 1-855-831-8151 (toll-free) or visit the OEB’s website at www.oeb.ca, where you can also review the Hydro One Rate application before the meeting.
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Don’t know whether it was your influence , Brian, but power restored noon Sunday after 40h. Most recent posting had us scheduled for 10 pm Monday.
Recent storm (last night) has resulted in many power outages.
I can sympathize with the task Hydro One is facing to restore the power BUT, and it is a big but, I see slower response times to correct and repair outages now than we used to see in the past.
Hydro has more equipment than ever in history but somewhere in the triage of what to fix first the system seems to break down.
For example, Port Cunnington peninsula is “off” for today because of trees on lines. OK I get this but I took a drive and the majority of the peninsula could be turned back on if just two trees were removed and two wires spliced and put back up. These are right beside the road and a single bucket truck and pickup crew of 4 or 5 men could have fixed this this morning but as of 7 pm tonight nobody is on site doing anything.
Even if they did not fix the tree issue they could power up a lot of the peninsula by opening some switches and resetting others, just a pickup and a hot stick would do this job.
Nobody on site at all.
Now I know they are busy, there are other problems but Port Cunnington Lodge alone has nearly 200 quests, all in the dark and now cancelling their visits. Not good for business at all.
I find that nowadays Hydro seems to pounce on the worst area with all their resources.. do a great fix up job and then move on to the next area. Great, but maybe not the best way to get power back on to as many as possible as quickly as possible.
It seems hard to believe that with such a clearly defined problem they could not find an extra pickup and one bucket truck to at least start sorting out the mess. This small crew could get a lot of the power back up and sort out the exact needs to restore the more damaged areas and communicate this data to the control office. This would save time!
Time is of the essence here. That line where they charge you for “delivery” on your bill starts to look a little silly when a single tree means 48 hours without power and not a Hydro one worker is even on site.
I don’t fault the actual workers in the coveralls… when they get there they do a good job, often in bad conditions but somewhere up that chain of command between these folks (both guys and girls by the way) and the persons sitting in some executive suite with a million dollar (literally) pay check there is a break down of the system.
It used to be quicker. There is every reason it should be even quicker now with wireless communication and computer assistance but it fails miserably almost every time the power is off. It needs to be improved!
If they are going to charge the fees they do for “delivery” then they should “deliver”!
I note also that the outage map on the internet seems to be a bit off the mark and suffers a bit of a reality disconnect. This map is a good idea but it too needs to be improved.
With OEB hearings for a coming rate increase this might be a good time to look closely at the actual service being provided. It needs to be better as in this day and age electricity is a necessity of business.