Ottawa River Power Corporation

Current applications before the Board

Title: Ottawa River Power Corporation 2024 Rates

Case number: EB-2023-0047

Type: Rates

Filed: December 01, 2023

Ottawa River Power Corporation has applied to change its electricity distribution rates, effective May 1, 2024.

The application also seeks to establish new rate riders to dispose of regulatory deferral and variance accounts (including material adjustments) and to establish a new account. The application includes a refund to customers of over-collected global adjustment.

If the application is approved as filed, a typical residential customer and a typical general service customer of Ottawa River Power Corporation would see the following changes in their total bill impacts. These changes do not factor in applicable taxes or the Ontario Electricity Rebate:

Residential (750 kWh)-$0.75 per month
General Service less than 50kW (2,000 kWh)-$2.61 per month

  
 Other customers, including businesses, will also be affected. It’s important to review the application carefully to determine whether you may be affected by the proposed changes.

The application also seeks to establish new rate riders to dispose of balances in regulatory deferral and variance accounts and establish a new account.

If you would like to request intervenor status for this application, you can do so by completing the Intervenor Form.

See application details and how to participate

Contact this Utility:

283 Pembroke Street West
P. O. Box 1087
Pembroke ON K8A 6Y6
11,732
Number of customers
35 sq. km
Total size of service area
510 km
Total km of electricity line

The electricity utility scorecards measure how well Ontario's electricity utilities are performing each year. It is designed to encourage utilities to operate effectively, continually seek ways to improve productivity and focus on improvements that their customers value. Utilities report their scorecard performance results annually, and make the results available to the public. 

The scorecard can be used as a tool for consumers to assess for themselves the value of the service received from their electricity utility. For example: 

  • When service appointments are booked with my utility, how often did they show up on time?
  • How often did my power go out, and how long did the utility take to fix the problem and restore power? 
  • How successful is my utility at issuing accurate bills? 
  • Did my utility answer phone calls from customers in a timely way?

Use our report generator tool to compare costs and performance between distributors

New residential/small business services connected on time
100% (2023)

The utility must connect new service for the customer within five business days, 90 % of the time, unless the customer agrees to a later date. This timeline depends on the customer meeting specific requirements ahead of time (such as no electrical safety concerns in the building, customer's payment information complete, etc.)

Target met
OEB Target = 90%
2013 100%
2014 100%
2015 100%
2016 100%
2017 98.57%
2018 100%
2019 100%
2020 100%
2021 100%
2022 100%
2023 100%

Scheduled appointments met on time
100% (2023)

For appointments during the utility's regular business hours, the utility must offer a window of time that is not more than four hours long, and must arrive within  that window, 90 % of the time. 

Target met
OEB Target = 90%
2013 100%
2014 100%
2015 100%
2016 100%
2017 99.14%
2018 98.64%
2019 98.15%
2020 98.29%
2021 97.58%
2022 98.11%
2023 100%

Telephone calls answered on time
97.24% (2023)

During regular call centre hours, the utility's call centre staff must answer within 30 seconds of receiving the call directly or having the call transferred to them, 65 % of the time

Target met
OEB Target = 65%
2013 99.9%
2014 99.9%
2015 99.9%
2016 99.9%
2017 99.87%
2018 99.92%
2019 99.95%
2020 97.63%
2021 94.33%
2022 96.05%
2023 97.24%

Billing accuracy
99.79% (2023)

An important part of business is ensuring that customer's bills are accurate. The utility must report on its success at issuing accurate bills to its customers.

More information about billing accuracy

Target met
OEB Target = 98%
2014 99.95%
2015 100%
2016 99.99%
2017 99.98%
2018 100%
2019 100%
2020 99.97%
2021 99.88%
2022 99.92%
2023 99.79%

Complaints
0.00 (2023)

This metric measures the number of complaints the Ontario Energy Board received from customers about matters within our authority. Complaints made directly to the utility are not reported here. We measure this per 1000 customers so utilities that serve much larger or smaller populations can be compared against each other. 

Year Complaints per 1000 customers Total number of complaints
2013 0.00 0
2014 0.09 1
2015 0.18 2
2016 0.00 0
2017 0.09 1
2018 0.27 3
2019 0.09 1
2020 0.00 0
2021 0.52 6
2022 0.26 3
2023 0.00 0

Average number of hours power to a customer was interrupted
1.49412h (2023)

An important feature of a reliable distribution system is recovering from power outages as quickly as possible. The utility must track the average length of time, in hours, that its customers have experienced a power outage over the past year. 

2013 0.91h
2014 1.24h
2015 7.3h
2016 1.54865h
2017 0.946284h
2018 0.529499h
2019 7.53065h
2020 0.564814h
2021 3.36023h
2022 1.77232h
2023 1.49412h

Average number of times power to a customer was interrupted
1.09092 (2023)

Another important feature of a reliable distribution system is reducing the frequency of  power outages. Utilities must also track the number of times their customers experienced a power outage during the past year.

More information about interruption frequency

2013 0.81
2014 0.79
2015 3.57
2016 0.835655
2017 0.615677
2018 0.242761
2019 1.34651
2020 0.532915
2021 1.39028
2022 1.32719
2023 1.09092

Efficiency rating
1 (2023)

The utility must manage its costs successfully in order to help assure its customers they are receiving value for the cost of the service they receive. Utilities' total costs are evaluated to produce a single efficiency ranking. This is divided into five groups based on how big the difference is between each utility's actual and predicted costs. Distributors whose actual costs are lower than their predicted costs are considered more efficient.

  • 1 = Actual costs are 25% or more below predicted costs
  • 2 = Actual costs are 10% to 25% below predicted costs
  • 3 = Actual costs are within +/- 10% of predicted costs
  • 4 = Actual costs are 10% to 25% above predicted costs
  • 5 = Actual costs are 25% or more above predicted costs
2013 3
2014 3
2015 3
2016 3
2017 3
2018 2
2019 2
2020 2
2021 2
2022 1
2023 1

Cost per customer
$668 (2023)

A simple measure that can be used as a comparison with other utilities is the utility's total cost per customer. 

Total cost is a sum of all the costs incurred by the utility to provide service to its customers. The amount is then divided by the utility's total number of customers. This amount does not represent how much customers pay for their utility services.

More information about Cost per Customer

2013 $505
2014 $471
2015 $478
2016 $487
2017 $501
2018 $484
2019 $530
2020 $520
2021 $521
2022 $592
2023 $668