As of today, Hydro One's Winter Relief Program has successfully reconnected several hundred customers who had been disconnected due to unpaid and overdue bills.
"This enhances our winter moratorium, winter relief goes a step further and is part of our new commitment to listen and respond to our customers'," said Ferio Pugliese, Executive Vice President of Customer Care and Corporate Affairs at Hydro One. "We're advocating for our customers and working very hard to make electricity affordable in the long term, but in the short term, we believe it's important to show compassion for those customers in dire circumstances."
Introduced in December 2016, the initiative builds on the Company's commitment to pause disconnections during the winter and provides customers suffering acute hardship access to light and heat during the coldest months.
As part of the program, Hydro One waived all reconnection fees and worked directly with each customer to develop a payment plan and, where appropriate, enrolled them into assistance programs, such as the Low-Income Energy Assistance Program, the Ontario Electricity Support Program, the Home Assistance Program and other services.
Hydro One will continue to work with reconnected customers to ensure they are able to stay on top of bill payments and remain connected.
"From Hydro One's perspective, the job will not be done until we can get the lights – and in some cases heat – back on for all of our customers during the winter months," added Pugliese.
There are less than 90 customers who have not taken advantage of the Winter Relief Program, despite Hydro One's best efforts to reach them through letters, calls and home visits. The Company encourages any customer unable to pay their bill to contact the customer communications centre at
1-888-664-9376 or to visit our website to learn more about the Winter Relief Program.
Quick Facts:
The Winter Relief Program identified 1,441 disconnected customers
1,038 of those accounts were either unoccupied properties, associated with a customer who had moved or did not require reconnection
316 customers have been successfully reconnected
The remaining 87 customers have not contacted Hydro One despite attempts to reach them through calls, letters and home visits
Hydro One continues to work with reconnected customers to ensure their accounts remain in good standing
**Program numbers as of February 22, 2017
