Hydro Ottawa achieves Smart Meter milestone

OTTAWA, ONTARIO - Hydro Ottawa celebrated a milestone with the production of its 750,000th electricity bill using consumption data obtained wirelessly from Smart Meters deployed throughout the City of Ottawa.

Currently, 210,000 Smart Meters are delivering data to Hydro Ottawa's Customer Information System (CIS) for billing, eliminating manual readings and enhancing the services provided to customers. This represents the largest operational Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) network in Canada, and exemplifies the company's pursuit of excellence and industry leadership.

In total, Hydro Ottawa has installed more than 230,000 Smart Meters throughout its service territory since 2006. The utility anticipates issuing its one millionth bill using remotely collected Smart Meter data sometime in November.

"Hydro Ottawa is pleased to be playing a leading role in the Government of Ontario's Smart Metering Initiative. Having this infrastructure in place is essential before time-of-use rates are implemented in Ottawa," says Rosemarie Leclair, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Hydro Ottawa Group of Companies. "In the meantime, our customers are already benefiting from our ability to read their meters without accessing their homes, and to process changes from one occupant to the next more quickly and seamlessly."

Ontario's Smart Meter initiative is designed to encourage more efficient use of Ontario's electricity supply. Ontario has passed legislation requiring the installation of Smart Meters across the province by the end of 2010.