Why is the OEB eliminating seasonal rates?
The OEB decided that the delivery rates charged to
seasonal
customers are subsidized by other customers and don’t reflect the actual cost to serve them.
Read the OEB's Decision here. To learn more about seasonal rates ending, visit the OEB’s website.
Why are the bill impacts so high for Low Density rates?
Seasonal customers don’t qualify for Rural or Remote
Rate
Protection that reduces the monthly service charge by $60.50 per month. This government
subsidy
only applies to year-round residential customers living at their principal residence.
As well, seasonal customers aren’t eligible for the
government subsidy — Distribution Rate Protection — which caps the service
charge
and volume charge to a maximum amount of $38.08 per month.
The increase in charges also better reflects the
higher cost
to serve customers in low density areas.
How is this increase being phased in?
To ease the impact to our customers, we’ll gradually
increase your service charge over the next 10 years. This approach will limit the total
bill
increase to no more than 10% per year (excluding very low users of electricity).
If you’re moving to Low Density rates, you’ll
receive a
letter in December 2022 that will show your estimated bill impacts.
How will delivery rates be mitigated for Low Density customers?
We’ll gradually phase in the increase to protect
customers
from seeing large bill increases. Your service charge that’s included in your delivery
rates
will be slowly increased on a yearly basis. This increase will be offset by a lower
distribution
volume charge each year.
Is Hydro One making more money because of seasonal rates ending?
We won’t make any additional revenue from ending
seasonal
rates. This change only impacts how overall costs are recovered between residential
customers.
Will my billing frequency change?
Most seasonal customers are currently billed
quarterly.
We’ll continue to bill seasonal customers on a quarterly basis. If you prefer to receive
a
monthly bill, you may sign up for our budget billing program.
How are you verifying whose seasonal property is their principal residence?
If your seasonal property is your principal
residence,
you’ll need to fill out a declaration
form
to acknowledge that you live at the residence at least four days a week for eight months
of the
year and provide a copy of your driver’s licence that shows your address for this
residence.
How did you decide my rate class is Low Density?
-
We confirmed the location of your seasonal
property
and compared it with the number of customers who are near you and the power
lines and
other equipment that deliver power to you.
-
We counted the number of electricity
customers
within your community or area, and length of power lines serving that area. We
then
follow the OEB’s criteria for Urban, Medium, or Low Density, to finalize your
rate
classification.
How is the density review done?
-
We use our geographic information system
(GIS) to
identify and mark the boundaries of core clusters of customers.
-
Once density zone boundaries are marked, we
extended
out the customer cluster boundary in all directions to easily identifiable
physical or
geographical boundaries (such as roads, railways, rivers, lakes) or non-physical
boundaries identifiable within the GIS system (such as property lines), where
physical
boundaries are remotely located from customer clusters.
-
Customer clusters located close to each
other are
combined into a larger, single density zone.
-
We map the kilometre of power line within a
proposed
density zone boundary and calculate the number of customers per kilometre of
power line.
Based on this we can confirm the correct rate class for customers located in the
density
zone boundary.
Why are you showing my line items twice on my bill?
As your rate class has changed, we need to calculate
your
Delivery charges using Low Density rates for any usage on and after January 1, 2023.
Your
Delivery charges shown on page 3 are calculated using Seasonal rates for any usage
incurred in
2022.