OTTAWA RIVER POWER CORPORATION

PRESS RELEASE – NOVEMBER 14, 2002


Clarification of Hydro Bill Charges

'Debt Retirement'


There has been an element of confusion on the part of many customers with the term on their hydro bill, "Debt Retirement".

Some customers are under the impression that this term refers to hydro employee retirement or pensions.  In fact, the term "Debt Retirement" has nothing to do with pensions or retirement of employees.

This debt was incurred when the former Ontario Hydro expanded their generation and operations. It is a province-wide legislation that all customers contribute to pay down this debt.

There have also been a number of questions raised regarding the other miscellaneous charges itemized on the hydro bill.  Customers are now questioning as to why they have to pay these, as they refer to, 'new charges'.  These charges are not new.  The charges were always part of the customer's bill; however, they were bundled together.  At the direction of the Government, these were separated so the customer could identify the individual charges or costs in getting power to their home. 

This, in turn, resulted in the bill being split into generation, cost (commodity), the transmission cost, the administration cost for the IMO (Independent Market Operator), local distribution costs for billing and the cost to bring the power to the home, as well as GST and the old Ontario Hydro debt charge.