Toronto Hydro cuts its spending and seeks new rates

THESTAR.COM

Toronto Hydro has pared back plans for higher spending by $422 million in a new application filed with the Ontario Energy Board.

But a typical residential customer can still expect his or her bill to rise about $4.95 a month, or 4.4 per cent, in each of the next three years, as the company spends heavily to renew aging equipment. The energy board had delivered a sharp rebuff to Toronto Hydro in January, when the company first asked for higher rates to fund a massive equipment renewal and training program over three years.

The board told Toronto Hydro it did not provide “cogent and compelling evidence” of the need for the sharply higher spending. It also observed that Toronto Hydro customers’ bills are higher than those of any other large utility in the province.

Toronto Hydro responded by warning that that blackouts would be more frequent, and safety could be imperiled, if it weren’t allowed to embark on an aggressive investment program – a program for which its customers would ultimately have to pay. The new application shows that Toronto Hydro will spend $1.423 billion on capital projects over the next three years – down from the earlier application’s planned spending of $1.845 billion.