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Hydro One provides additional $1 million funding for social housing energy efficiency upgrades; brings total program funding to $2.5 million

November 29, 2006 — Hydro One is providing an additional $1 million to the Social Housing Services Corporation's (SHSC) energy management program, which is lowering energy use and costs in Ontario's social housing community. Hydro One's total funding of the program now totals $2.5 million and will benefit up to 4,500 of their customers. The funding helps social housing landlords undertake energy audits and retrofits to improve energy efficiency and reduce electricity bills.

"The McGuinty government is committed to creating a culture of conservation across Ontario," said Kevin Flynn, MPP for Oakville and Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Energy. "This additional investment by Hydro One ensures that even more low-income Ontarians and service providers can share in the benefits of energy conservation."

"We're pleased to be able to substantially increase our assistance to Hydro One customers living in social housing communities," said Tom Parkinson, President and CEO, Hydro One. "Our partnership with SHSC allows Hydro One to help the people who need it the most while supporting the Province's efforts to build a conservation culture."

"Hydro One's increase in funding is great news," says SHSC Chairman Gordon Chong. "It means that even more social housing landlords will reduce their energy use, lower their energy costs and green house gas emissions, which makes good business sense, while benefiting the environment."

There are currently 17,000 social housing units participating in the SHSC energy management program. Current estimates of savings suggest these units will save over $1.3 million on energy costs, lower energy consumption by 13.5 million kWh and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 12,000 tonnes. SHSC is working to deliver the program to all 250,000 social housing units in Ontario, which will significantly increase energy savings.

Eligible social housing landlords may apply to SHSC for a grant of up to $500 per housing unit. Hydro One will pay for an initial audit ($50 per unit) and energy efficient measures up to $450 per unit. SHSC will report to Hydro One the estimated kilowatt-hour energy savings achieved by all retrofit projects funded under this initiative. To date, over 2,000 units of Hydro One customers are undergoing energy efficiency improvements. Typical measures include retrofitting common area lighting, controls on common area ventilation, and installing programmable thermostats to control in-suite heating/cooling.

Hydro One's support is part of a broader Conservation and Demand Management program that provides a range of incentives to help customers save electricity and money, and ease strain on the provincial electricity grid during peak demand periods. Some examples of these initiatives are: LED Holiday Light Exchange, Cold Shoulder Appliance Pick-up, Municipal Traffic Signal LED Retrofit, smartstat° - Web-enabled Thermostat, and PowerCost Monitor™ Giveaway.

The Social Housing Services Corporation (SHSC) is a not-for-profit organization that develops and delivers value-added services and programs to social housing providers and municipalities in Ontario. SHSC offers business-oriented solutions to address the needs of the social housing community, including insurance, investment, gas purchasing, energy management and research programs.

Hydro One delivers electricity safely, reliably and responsibly to homes and businesses across the province of Ontario and owns and operates Ontario's 29,000 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 1.3 million end-use customers and smaller municipal utilities in the province. Hydro One is wholly owned by the Province of Ontario.

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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 website is www.HydroOne.com.

SHSC contact: Louanne Keay, Marketing and Communications Officer 416-594-9325 ext 239. Visit our website at www.shscorp.ca.