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Hydro One President and CEO named Leader of the Year by the Ontario Energy Association

Toronto - Sept. 15, 2004 — The Ontario Energy Association (OEA) has named Tom Parkinson, Hydro One’s President and Chief Executive Officer, its Leader of the Year. The prestigious power industry award was announced Tuesday night (September 14) at the OEA annual conference in Niagara Falls.

Parkinson was recognized for his vision, strategic thinking and passionate leadership of Hydro One during a period of much change.

"This award is not only a personal honour, it’s testimony of the hard work and achievement of Hydro One’s staff in the last year," Parkinson said. "We have focused on our core business of delivering electricity to the people of Ontario and we are seeing success because of it."

"Tom Parkinson is truly an outstanding leader. The people who work with him — Hydro One Board members, employees, colleagues and stakeholders — consistently describe a man of vision, passion and dedication," said OEA President and CEO Bernard Jones. "Since taking the helm at Hydro One, he has set clear, ambitious targets for safety, customer service, operational reliability and financial performance and Hydro One has by all measures outperformed."

Tom Parkinson mapped out a clear course for Hydro One with his 2003 Strategic Direction address that refocused Hydro One’s business objectives on its core strengths. He set ambitious and aggressive targets for safety and customer service and he gave his staff the tools and resources they needed to make those goals achievable.

Under Parkinson’s watch, Hydro One has made major gains:

• In 2003, Hydro One reduced lost-time incidents by more than 50 per cent.
• By implementing effective programs and creating a stronger service culture, the satisfaction level of our large customers improved by 22 per cent over 2002.
• Hydro One earned $396 million in net income and paid $244 million in dividends to its shareholder, the Province of Ontario.
• Hydro One surpassed the OEB’s reliability requirement for distribution operations.
• In an employee survey, there was a 13 per cent increase in the number of employees who believe that Hydro One was changing for the better and 83 per cent of employees said they were proud to work for Hydro One.

About Ontario Energy Association (OEA)

The Ontario Energy Association is the only trade association that brings together the natural gas and electricity industries in Ontario, including energy transmission and distribution utilities, power producers, retailers and marketers, appliance and equipment manufacturers, contractors and suppliers, and firms supplying a range of consulting services to the industry. The OEA’s mission is to proactively foster a business environment conducive to a prosperous and sustainable energy industry.

About Hydro One

Hydro One owns and operates Ontario's 28,400-kilometre high-voltage transmission network that delivers electricity to large industrial customers and municipal utilities, and a 122,000-kilometre low-voltage distribution system that serves about 1.2 million end-use customers and smaller municipal utilities in the province. Hydro One is wholly owned by the Ontario Government.

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For more information, contact Hydro One Media Relations 24 hours a day at 1-877-506-7584 (toll-free in Ontario only) or 416-345-6868. Or visit us online at www.HydroOne.com.