What ERTH Power actually does (and why your bill says "ERTH Power" at the top)
Ontario's electricity market is structured very differently from Alberta's. ERTH Power wears two hats at once: it is the distributor that owns the poles, overhead and underground lines, transformers, substations and meters across Kitchener, Waterloo, Wilmot, Woolwich and Wellesley, AND it is your default supplier under Ontario's Standard Supply Service (SSS) rules. The bill that arrives at your home in Kitchener, Uptown Waterloo, New Hamburg, Elmira or Linwood covers both jobs.
The per-kWh rate ERTH Power charges most residential and small-business customers is set by the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) twice a year in its Regulated Price Plan (RPP), with three structures to choose from: Time-of-Use, Tiered or Ultra-Low Overnight. Long-term fixed-rate retailer contracts exist but are a niche market, and signing one does not change the delivery, regulatory or Global Adjustment lines on your bill, only the commodity portion.
- Owns the wires, transformers, smart meters across 5 municipalities
- Restores power after outages (24/7 dispatch)
- Sends the monthly bill at the OEB's RPP rate
- Fixed by address: every ERTH Power's southwestern Ontario footprint property is served by ERTH Power
- Replaces the commodity portion of the bill only
- Door-to-door sales banned (ECPA 2010)
- Delivery + Global Adjustment + regulatory unchanged
- ERTH Power still owns the wires and meter
ERTH Power's footprint spans dense urban Kitchener and Uptown Waterloo plus several rural-township feeders (Wellesley, Woolwich, Wilmot). Outage durations on the rural feeders tend to be longer than in the urban core, simply because crews drive further and a downed-tree fault on a single rural line affects a much smaller number of metres. Two ERTH Power offices co-exist after the merger: 301 Victoria Street South (Kitchener HQ) and 526 Country Squire Road (Waterloo).
Where ERTH Power delivers power
In plain words: ERTH Power's territory is fifteen separate small communities scattered across five southwestern Ontario counties (Oxford, Elgin, Perth, Middlesex, Huron). Each town is a self-contained pocket inside a larger Hydro One Networks rural area, so the boundary is not contiguous — if you cross a county-road into the surrounding countryside, you usually leave the ERTH Power service area and enter Hydro One territory.
- •Oxford County: Ingersoll, Thamesford, Otterville, Norwich, Burgessville, Beachville, Embro, Tavistock
- •Elgin County: Aylmer, Port Stanley, Belmont
- •Perth County: Mitchell (West Perth), Dublin
- •Huron County: Clinton, Goderich
- •London → London Hydro
- •Stratford, St. Marys, Hensall, Zurich, Brussels, Seaforth, Dashwood → Festival Hydro
- •Chatham-Kent, Strathroy-Caradoc, Parkhill, Dutton, Newbury, St. Thomas → Entegrus Powerlines
- •Rural Oxford, Elgin, Perth, Middlesex, Huron counties → Hydro One Networks
Not sure which one applies to your address? Check your most recent electricity bill: the distributor's name and OEB licence number are printed at the top of the first page.
How ERTH Power's charges appear on your bill
An Ontario electricity bill is broken into a handful of distinct line items, all of which appear on the same ERTH Power invoice. Unlike Alberta, where the commodity is billed separately by your retailer, in Ontario almost every household sees a single integrated bill where ERTH Power acts as both the wires company and the OEB-default supplier.
The per-kWh rate set by the OEB twice a year in the Regulated Price Plan. You pick one of three structures: Time-of-Use, Tiered or Ultra-Low Overnight.
Funds the difference between the market price and the long-term contracts the IESO signed for nuclear, hydro, wind, solar and conservation. RPP customers see this rolled into the commodity rate.
The cost of moving electricity from the IESO-controlled grid through ERTH Power's wires to your meter. Includes a fixed monthly service charge plus a per-kWh distribution rate set by the OEB.
Small line covering OEB programs and the Wholesale Market Service Rate. Set by the OEB and applied uniformly across Ontario LDCs.
A provincial credit that reduces the pre-tax subtotal by a percentage set by the government (currently around 13 %). Applied automatically to eligible residential, farm and small-business accounts.
The 13 % federal-provincial sales tax applied to the post-rebate subtotal. Cannot be avoided; appears at the bottom of the bill.
ERTH Power's delivery rate is approved by the OEB through periodic rate applications. Rates are filed publicly on the OEB's eFiling portal and can be examined line by line by any customer or consumer advocate. The 2025 intent-to-acquire-Westario-Power announcement will be reviewed under the OEB's MAADs (mergers, acquisitions, amalgamations and divestitures) framework before it can close.
A practical implication: if a licensed retailer offers a low fixed per-kWh rate, you will still pay the same ERTH Power delivery and regulatory charges, the same Global Adjustment, the same HST. Switching retailers changes the commodity portion of your bill; switching never changes ERTH Power's portion.
Peak (4-7pm), mid-peak, off-peak. Best for households that can shift heavy use to evenings and weekends.
A low block for the first ~600 kWh per month (residential), a higher block above. Best for steady, modest users.
Very cheap from 11pm to 7am, much more expensive 4-9pm. Best for EV owners or anyone who can charge overnight.
Contact details: two separate numbers
ERTH Power runs a dedicated outage hotline (226-896-2200) separately from its general customer care number (226-896-1010). Outages are the only thing you call the first number for; the second handles billing, account changes, moves, new connections and conservation programmes.
Outages, downed wires, electrical emergencies. For a downed live wire, call 911 first.
Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
143 Bell Street
P.O. Box 157
Ingersoll, ON N5C 3K5
1-877-850-3128 (24/7)
Outage map + portal on erthpower.com
For non-urgent questions you can also use ERTH Power's online tools: the outage centre and the customer portal on https://www.erthpower.com. As Ontario's seventh-largest LDC, ERTH Power processes hundreds of thousands of customer interactions a year and its scorecard performance is reported annually to the OEB.
Report a power outage
If your power is out, the fastest path is to call 1-877-850-3128. Crews are dispatched 24/7. Active outages and restoration estimates are published on the outage centre, which covers all ERTH Power communities.
Call 1-877-850-3128 or check the outage centre online. Have your address and account number ready.
The system pinpoints which feeder, transformer or substation is affected and assigns a crew or pole patrol.
In-town faults in Ingersoll, Aylmer or Mitchell often clear within an hour; rural-edge faults on long feeders to Goderich or Port Stanley can take longer because crews drive further.
Power is verified at the smart meter. Reset clocks, check freezer contents, and report any damage right away via ERTH Power's claims process.
Reliability in plain words
ERTH Power reports its reliability performance to the OEB every year in its public scorecard. The two headline metrics are SAIDI (average hours a customer was off in a year) and SAIFI (average number of interruptions per customer per year). Small multi-county LDCs like ERTH Power can show more year-over-year variability because a single windstorm hitting one feeder corridor affects a disproportionate share of customers. The full year-by-year scorecard is on the OEB's distributor-scorecard registry.
Planned outages for maintenance are normally posted at least 48 hours in advance on the outage centre. If you depend on medical equipment, register with ERTH Power's priority-notification programme so you are flagged before any planned interruption.
New connection or service upgrade
For a new build, a service upgrade (e.g. moving from 100 A to 200 A for an EV charger or heat pump), a temporary construction service, or any work that requires changes to the physical wires or meter, you deal with ERTH Power. Start at https://www.erthpower.com or call 519-485-1820. Routine residential connections target the OEB's 5-business-day standard once all conditions are met.
The civic address and legal description of the lot inside one of ERTH Power's five municipalities.
A sketch showing where you want the meter, service entrance and run-back to the pole or pad-mounted transformer.
The amperage (100 A, 200 A, 400 A…) and voltage you need, signed off by your Master Electrician.
An Electrical Safety Authority permit and ESA sign-off once the in-house wiring is done. ERTH Power cannot energise until ESA clears it.
For routine residential connections once all conditions are met. Complex builds or service upgrades that require civil work can run several months.
Fixed component + per-metre charge above the contribution threshold defined in ERTH Power's Conditions of Service.
Once the wires are in, your account opens automatically under Standard Supply Service at the OEB's Regulated Price Plan rate. You can switch your RPP structure (TOU, Tiered or ULO) at any time by contacting ERTH Power. If you sign with a licensed retailer later, the retailer registers their contract with ERTH Power and the commodity rate is replaced on your next bill cycle.
Moving home, transferring or closing a service
In ERTH Power's 15 communities, the move-in / move-out conversation starts with ERTH Power directly, not with a separate retailer. Because ERTH Power is the default supplier, it closes the old billing account, sets up the new one, and triggers the final meter read. Most move requests need at least 1 to 2 business days of notice; 5 is safer for end-of-month moves.
Call 519-485-1820 (or use My Account online). Give them the move date and your new address.
1 to 2 business days minimum; allow 5 for month-end moves and university September turnover.
On the move-out date, ERTH Power records the final reading remotely from the smart meter; no in-person visit required.
ERTH Power issues a closing bill for the period up to the move-out date. The new address bill starts under a fresh account.
Administrative transfer only. No physical work, no service interruption. Your RPP structure (TOU, Tiered, ULO) carries over by default; ask ERTH Power if you want to change it at the new address.
Opening a fresh account is required at the new LDC. Common destinations from ERTH Power's territory include London Hydro, Entegrus Powerlines (St. Thomas, Strathroy), Festival Hydro (Stratford) and Hydro One Networks (rural).
Meters, meter reading and accuracy
ERTH Power owns the meter at your address. Since the province-wide smart-meter rollout was completed in 2010-2011, virtually every the ERTH Power territory residential and small-business address is equipped with a smart meter that supports the OEB's Time-of-Use pricing structure. The meter is the basis for both the consumption side of your bill and the choice between TOU, Tiered or Ultra-Low Overnight RPP structures.
Every ERTH Power's southwestern Ontario footprint residential address. Consumption reports back to ERTH Power automatically; no action from you, no estimated bills.
ERTH Power pulls the meter and tests it on a calibrated bench against Measurement Canada's tolerance.
Download your hour-by-hour consumption via My Account or pipe it directly into an authorised third-party energy app.
If the meter reads outside Measurement Canada's tolerance (typically ±2 %), the test is free and you get a billing adjustment back to the date the fault is presumed to have started. If the meter passes, the test fee is charged to you at the OEB-approved tariff rate.
What do you need to do with ERTH Power?
Pick an action. The tool shows the right phone, the right link, and what to expect. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Note: under AUC Rule 002, Alberta distributors are not required to pay automatic compensation for outages. Damage claims are evaluated case-by-case on negligence.
Compensation and damage claims: the honest version
Ontario has no automatic, statutory compensation scheme for individual customers affected by a power outage. Unlike the UK's Ofgem Guaranteed Standards, the OEB's role is to require ERTH Power to report its reliability performance (SAIDI, SAIFI) every year in its public scorecard. Penalties for under-performance flow from the regulator to the distributor; they do not arrive in your mailbox as a credit.
If your fridge or freezer contents spoiled, an appliance was damaged by a voltage surge, or you incurred a clear loss during an outage, you can file a damage claim with ERTH Power. The claim is evaluated on negligence.
- +Equipment failure (transformer, network switch)
- +Crew error during work on the network
- +Switching incident causing voltage spike
- +Unplanned, distributor-caused service interruption
- ×Severe weather (lightning, wind, ice storms)
- ×Wildlife contact (squirrels, raccoons on lines)
- ×Third-party contact (vehicle hits pole, dig-in)
- ×Planned outages notified in advance
Most the ERTH Power territory home insurance policies cover food spoilage and surge damage at a low excess. If your loss is meaningful, the insurance route is usually faster than a denied utility claim. Keep dated receipts and photos either way.
Regulator and complaint escalation
If you cannot resolve something directly with ERTH Power, there is a clear escalation ladder in Ontario. The Ontario Energy Board sits at the top as both the economic regulator and the body that handles consumer complaints; the Electrical Safety Authority covers physical-safety issues.
Sets the Regulated Price Plan, approves ERTH Power's distribution tariff and reviews service-quality reporting. Also runs the OEB Consumer Protection Office for individual disputes.
Administers Ontario Regulation 22/04, audits ERTH Power's distribution-asset safety practices and tracks the Serious Electrical Incident Index. Issues electrical permits for in-house wiring.
Most issues resolve here. Phone 519-485-1820 (Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) or use the My Account portal.
If the front line cannot fix it, request a written decision. This creates the paper trail needed for the next step.
The OEB investigates complaints involving Ontario LDCs, retailers and unit sub-meter providers. The service is free.
Last resort. For tariff or service-quality issues you can intervene as a registered intervenor in a rate proceeding. For damage claims that are denied, civil court is the final route.