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10,000 Hydro One customers order PowerCost Monitors; more free units available to qualified customers

July 31, 2006 — Hydro One customers in northern Ontario have acted quickly and ordered 10,000 of the electricity monitors that Hydro One is giving away for free. The handy little devices that help homeowners save on their hydro bills are being ordered at a steady pace and units are still available for those customers who haven't yet ordered theirs.

In total, 30,000 units are being made available on a first come first served basis to Hydro One residential customers in northern Ontario.

Danny Tuff, CEO of Blue Line Innovations commented on the program saying: "The demand for the monitors has been very positive. I think northern Ontario customers are enthusiastic about a device that can help them to monitor their electricity consumption and conserve. We all like to save money and the PowerCost Monitor enables that. We want to get the message out to our friends in northern Ontario, that if you don't already have a monitor, there is still time to obtain one," he said.

Northern Ontario Hydro One customers are the first in the province to be offered the free monitors.

Called the PowerCost Monitor(TM), the device is simple to install. The homeowner attaches the sensor unit to the hydro meter on the outside of the home and it reads the meter. It then sends a signal to a small companion display unit, which can sit atop the kitchen counter or in any other room in the house. The display unit shows the homeowner how much money is being spent on electricity from moment to moment. There are no wires used to connect the sensor unit to the display unit in the home.

Research results from an earlier year long Hydro One demonstration project with 500 Ontario homeowners showed that real time electricity monitors can help homeowners reduce their consumption of electricity by up to 15%.

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.

About Blue Line Innovations
Blue Line Innovations is a Newfoundland- and Labrador-based firm offering innovative conservation and demand-side management solutions to the energy sector. Key divisions of Blue Line Innovations are involved in product development, marketing, systems engineering and manufacturing. Blue Line is the only developer and provider of this innovative technology in Canada. Given the global focus on energy conservation, Blue Line Innovations is well positioned to support individuals, utilities and governments in achieving their conservation goals.

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For more information and to make arrangements for photography, contact Hydro One Media Relations 24 hours a day at 1-877-506-7584 (toll-free in Ontario only) or 416-345-6868. Our Web site is www.HydroOne.com.