[ FOR DAVID: None of my data was available in raw form or even in any charts so, creating visuals was a bit of a challenge. They definitely help illustrate the points made by my article and help the reader see a comparison. All of my statistics for Hydro Ottawa came from https://static.hydroottawa.com/documents/publications/ This is where Hydro Ottawa stores all of their statistical information. They do not leave raw data accessible to public. Hydro One information available on their site is limited as they do not personally retain long term data.]

Residents are thrilled to have more efficient service, less outages and lower rates than 73% of Ontario’s hydro providers.

Hydro Ottawa is climbing the customer satisfaction ladder yet again after a slight drop in 2011. The energy company, third-largest municipally-owned electrical utility in Ontario, has had no less than 80% customer satisfaction ratings in the past nine years.

As of the 2012 annual report, Hydro Ottawa services over 309,000 residential homes and commercial customers in their 1,104 kilometre service area. What they lack in area size they make up for in reliability and low rates.

In 2011, Hydro Ottawa had 8% less power outages than Hydro One, that gap is the closest it has been in two decades. Hydro One, the provinces largest power provider, has been dipping in satisfaction rates. Many municipally owned electricity companies are proving more effective than their larger counterparts.

Ottawans don’t often realize how fortunate they are until leaving the city. Katherine Morrison of Quinte West, Ont. had lived in Kingston for six years before moving to Ottawa. After receiving her first bill in the mail she was shocked. As of November 2013, Kingston Hydro and Ottawa Hydro were on par for electricity costs, but that hasn’t always been the case.

“I thought about calling the city to verify that I had not been under charged, I thought there was a mistake,” said Morrison. “It is like when you get your cable bill and notice some missing charges, you aren’t sure what to do. You can either tell them and hope they don’t charge for the mistake or wait and see if they ding you for it later.”

Morrison is not a lone face in the awe of hydro prices. Ottawa Hydro reports that their high satisfaction ratings are in part due to the number of Ottawa residents who move between cities. Lifelong residents compliment the speed and efficiency hydro workers maintain, which is something that newcomers don’t often notice.

In 2010, Hydro Ottawa had soared beyond any of its previous satisfaction records. Ninety-two per cent of customers were glad to have Hydro Ottawa pumping energy through their homes and businesses. That is over 280,600 happy customers.

After moving to Quinte West just over a year ago, Morrison had the opposite reaction. “I was sure something had to be wrong, the cost was nearly double what I paid in Ottawa,” she said.

Hydro Ottawa grid supervisor Carol Finch-Dawson hears many stories coinciding with what Morrison has said. “Ottawa residents are lucky to have a municipal hydro authority. When you have a small company, the rates are not as variable,” said Finch-Dawson. “Hydro One serves clients in the boonies, it costs more to send power far from the source. Our grid is contained in about 1,000 square kilometers. It is less expensive to service clients in a contained area.”

Ottawa Hydro’s sprawl extends to the city of Ottawa boundaries and as far east as Casselman, Ont. The out of town extension makes Hydro Ottawa ‘s area about the size of Toronto and Hamilton combined.

It’s technology is dated, only 23 per cent of Ontario hydro companies have implemented new hydro dams or performed major upgrades to their existing structures in the past three decades. Minor upgrades and storage developments have helped cope with the growing number of energy consumers.

Wires in older neighbourhoods of Ottawa have not been replaced in between seven to ten years. Unless damaged, there is no need for Hydro Ottawa to update their system.

“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it,” said Finch-Dawson with a laugh. “We haven’t had problems with our lines that many cities do. If we replaced our wires and equipment, it would cost the city a lot of money.”

Hydro Ottawa runs many of its power lines underground. This prevents the typical wire wares such as heavy precipitation, damage by animals, tree contact, ice and wind. Underground wires are more difficult to repair and can cause hassle when run through land of future housing developments but, the pros definitely outweigh the cons.

“What many people don’t know is that when building, land survey records are available at City Hall that display our wires other underground interferences that may exist,” said John McMillan, customer relations specialist with Hydro Ottawa. “If one has not been performed recently, the land owner is responsible for having one completed before construction.”

McMillan explained that customers often don’t have to worry about their own lines when digging, it is wires that go far beyond their homes that Hydro Ottawa is concerned about. “If there is a break in a line 15 kilometres from where the outage happened, we have had to dig up entire lines to figure out where the problem lies,” he said. Breaks in lines cost the city of Ottawa money that could be put elsewhere.

 

Hydro Ottawa has surpassed most municipal-owned power companies in revenues as well. Even with the low cost of electricity, Hydro Ottawa is able to bring revenues over $ 100 million to the City of Ottawa. Reliability in its power system and reduced number of outages mean despite various repairs, expenses for the hydro company are still minimal in comparison.

Hydro Ottawa also takes pride in impressing its customers with charity campaigns and community service. Since 200, Hydro Ottawa’s United Way workplace campaigns have raised over $ 1.3 million. Hydro Ottawa has also participated in the Brighter Tomorrows Fund and granted over $326,000 to Ottawa homeless shelters and homeless rehabilitation programs.

Out of the office, Hydro Ottawa volunteers help provide fun and safe activities for physically and mentally challenged persons. For many years, this has included annual trips to the Gloucester fair.

Approximately 22.2 per cent of energy generated in Ontario is hydro. With an abundance of fast moving rivers and waterfalls, Ontario is the ideal landscape for hydro energy to thrive. Second only to nuclear power, hydro has toppled over natural gas, solar and wind by almost double the generation.

Canada’s reliability on hydro is so significant that 62.9 per cent of Canadians power their homes with hydro energy.

Nuclear has been deemed the energy of the future by many organizations however, Canadians are hesitant after the nuclear catastrophes in Japan.

In Ottawa, citizens are hesitant to transfer to nuclear energy due to the risk of major earthquakes in the Bytown area.

According to Natural Resources Canada, the St. Laurence low-lands, including Ottawa, are likely to be hit with increased number of earthquakes over the next decade. This has residents concerned abou the proper construction and maintenance of nuclear facilities near the city.

“One of the most common answers energy surveys is that Ottawa-Gatineau region would not change their energy source to nuclear. This stems from fear of natural disaster. We are in a green wave, more and more people want to protect the planet,” said Michael Belyakov. “Using facilities we already have or developing wind and solar farms are preferable to Canadians.”

But, Hydro Ottawa is doing things right. In 2012, after a short dip in its customer satisfaction the year before, Hydro Ottawa is climbing again.

“Hydro is green. Once the construction phase is complete, there is very little by-product from the dams,” said Finch-Dawson. “There is no fear of natural disaster or dangerous contamination that could affect our customers.”

Hydro dams built many decades ago still stand and still product energy efficiently. Out of Ontario’s 30,000 plus kilometres of transmission lines, only one per cent have been damaged by earthquakes in the past 25 years.

Hydro Ottawa shares its power with neighbours. A benefit to using hydro is that the energy production is constant and doesn’t require storage of hazardous materials. Though our storage is limited, Hydro Ottawa is able to export excess energy through five adjoining jurisdictions. These jurisdictions provide revenue for using our grid.

Ontario is able to import or export 4,800 megawats of power at any given time. That is enough to power 480,000 homes or approximately half of Ottawa.

In 2012, Hydro Ottawa exported 69.5 per cent more energy to surrounding areas than it imported.

Out of the 76 electricity distribution companies in Ontario, only 13 were able to export more than they imported.

Though Hydro Ottawa’s customer base of 309,000 is only a small portion of Ontario’s total number of power customers, they are doing things right in the eyes of their customers and governments.

Prior to municipal-owned power companies, Ontario was serviced by one large producer that racked up millions of dollars in debt before it was eventually bankrupted and its assets were divided. Every hydro customer pays 4.2 per cent of their bill towards that debt. With Hydro Ottawa producing so much extra revenue, that number has not had to increase in our jurisdiction. However, more than half of the hydro companies in Ontario were unable to produce sufficient revenues and therefore, have increased their Debt Retirement Charge up to 12.7 per cent, that is more than the government taxes on energy consumption.

Hydro Ottawa continues to expand with the growing population of Ottawa and over the next five years expects to have expanded its area to 1,200 square kilometers. Hydro authorities raise the prices of hydro to coincide with the Ontario Energy Board but, Hydro Ottawa expects to keep its mid-low range rates.

“It is our goal to maintain our current rates as long as possible,” said McMillan. “The costs of running an operation increase and taxes increase, so customers will have to be understanding when the time comes that we can no longer operate at our current rates. They are lower than most in the province, when inevitable cost increases happen we are proud of that fact and will remain a cost-effective organization.”

Over 40 years, Hydro Ottawa has developed from a small business with many technical difficulties to one of the most reliable hydro producers in the country. The company prides itself on the high satisfaction ratings it receives from customers and will not rest until the unsatisfied eight percent are happy.

Reliable grids and speedy repair teams have helped keep Hydro Ottawa’s outage numbers and duration lengths to a minimum. Hydro One, the province’s largest hydro producer has a lot to learn from the small municipal-owned power authorities.

Customer dissatisfaction number are rising with the larger companies and residents of places serviced by Hydro One are more likely than those serviced by Hydro Ottawa to look towards other sources of energy.

Into the future, Hydro Ottawa’s focus remains on its customers.

“Our client numbers could grow but without making our customers happy, we would be another big company looking to make money,” said Finch-Dawson. “We aren’t as large as other providers but, we do our best to ensure what area we do service is happy enough to keep hydro out of their mind.”