“Bending the Cost Curve” for Business Customers
Annual General Meeting, Hamilton Chamber of Commerce
Neil Freeman, Vice President, Business Development
March 3, 2015
HORIZON UTILITIES CORPORATION and horizon UTILITIES Looking beyond… & Design are registered trade-marks in Canada of Horizon Holdings Inc. and are used under license by Horizon Utilities Corporation.
Low rates across all commercial classes
• Horizon has among the lowest distribution rates for commercial
customers of any local distribution company in Ontario
• Some local utilities may have lower rates in one class, but few
would be lower in all commercial classes
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Source: Horizon Holdings 2013 Annual Report (based on OEB rate orders).
New ‘large user’ rate category lowers cost
• New ‘Large User’ rate
now in place
• 84% rate decrease
versus 2014 rate
• Customers with >5MW
of demand and
dedicated lines
• Result of better cost
Source: Scott Gardiner, The Hamilton Spectator
allocation across
customer classes
• New rate will be very good for keeping and attracting large business
• All commercial rates remain very competitive – location advantage
• Received significant customer input into new rates, including from
residential, small and large commercial customers
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New connection policy for factory repurposing
• New award winning infill
development / intensification
connection policy
• Canadian Urban Institute
“Brownie Award”
• Cost reduction is greatest
where distribution lines are
at street and capacity at
station
• No longer charge general “system enhancement” toll unrelated to
customer connection
• $225,000 in cost savings in one 1,500 kW example
• Generally no “expansion” (construction) costs beyond reconnection
of lines and installation of new metering
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Large conservation team delivers incentives
• Strong track record of
getting conservation
incentives for commercial
customers
• Large team to support
customers
• Secured largest and
second largest retrofit
saveONenergy grant
• Many innovative
customized projects
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Smart grid – infrastructure renewal & modernization
• Smart Metering – completed
• Substation automation –
completed
• Feeder automation – ongoing
• GIS (Geographic Information
System) whole system renewal
completed in 2014 – Intergraph
• OMS (Outage Management
System) whole new system
completed in 2015 – Intergraph
• AMI (Advanced Metering
Infrastructure) integrated to
OMS/GIS in 2016
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