Hydro One asks to spend $15M on bill redesign

Yorkregion.com
The Canadian Press
Jan. 12, 2018

Hydro One has spent $9 million to redesign bills and is proposing to spend an additional $6 million on the project.

The NDP is raising concerns with the $15-million expense contained in a rate application from the formerly public utility.

Energy critic Peter Tabuns says that's a ridiculous amount, and he believes the problem with hydro bills is that they are too high, not that people don't understand them.

But Hydro One says a 2016 survey of its customers indicated about 40 per cent had trouble understanding their bills.

The company says about $9 million has already gone into redesigning bills, mostly for residential customers, and mostly to update the information systems, rather than cosmetic changes.

The Ontario Energy Board recently ordered Hydro One to lower a rate increase it had been seeking for this year to 0.2 per cent down from 4.8 per cent.