What Hydro Hawkesbury actually does (and why your bill says "Hydro Hawkesbury" at the top)
Ontario's electricity market is structured very differently from Alberta's, and Hydro Hawkesbury is a clear small-town example of how it works. Hydro Hawkesbury wears two hats at once: it is the distributor that owns the poles, overhead lines, transformers and meters across the Town of Hawkesbury, AND it is your default supplier under Ontario's Standard Supply Service (SSS) rules. The bill that arrives at your home covers both jobs.
The per-kWh rate Hydro Hawkesbury 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 they are a niche market in Ontario, and signing one does not change the delivery, regulatory or Global Adjustment lines on your bill, only the commodity portion. The wires that bring the electricity to your Hawkesbury address belong to Hydro Hawkesbury regardless.
- Owns the wires, transformers and smart meters in Hawkesbury
- Restores power after outages (small on-call crew + mutual aid)
- Sends the monthly bill at the OEB's RPP rate
- Fixed by address: every property inside the Town of Hawkesbury
- Replaces the commodity portion of the bill only
- Door-to-door sales banned (ECPA 2010)
- Delivery + Global Adjustment + regulatory unchanged
- Hydro Hawkesbury still owns the wires and meter
Hawkesbury sits on the Ontario side of the Ottawa River, directly facing Grenville on the Quebec side. The bridge crosses an interprovincial boundary AND a utility boundary: Hawkesbury is on Hydro Hawkesbury, Grenville is on Hydro-Québec. Streetlight problems on a Hawkesbury pole are typically handled by the Town of Hawkesbury (613-632-0106 ext. 2020), not by the LDC. The LDC handles only the actual electricity service.
Where Hydro Hawkesbury delivers power
In plain words: if you live or run a business inside the Town of Hawkesbury, Hydro Hawkesbury is your distributor. The boundary follows the town limits exactly. Just outside town (East Hawkesbury, Vankleek Hill, rural Champlain) you switch to Hydro One; across the river in Grenville, you are on Hydro-Québec.
- •Town of Hawkesbury (downtown, residential neighbourhoods, light industrial parks)
- •Hawkesbury industrial park along the Ottawa River
- •Residential, commercial and industrial addresses inside the town limits
- •Alfred & Plantagenet → Hydro 2000
- •Embrun + Russell Township → Coopérative Hydro Embrun
- •City of Ottawa + Casselman → Hydro Ottawa
- •Vankleek Hill, East Hawkesbury, rural Champlain → 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 Hydro Hawkesbury'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 Hydro Hawkesbury invoice. Unlike Alberta, where the commodity is billed separately by your retailer, in Ontario almost every household sees a single integrated bill where Hydro Hawkesbury 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 (peak/mid/off-peak), Tiered (low- and high-block) or Ultra-Low Overnight (for EV owners).
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; bigger customers see it as its own line.
The cost of moving electricity from the IESO-controlled grid through Hydro Hawkesbury'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, the Wholesale Market Service Rate and a few other system-wide charges. 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.
Hydro Hawkesbury's delivery rate is set by the OEB under the standard Cost-of-Service / Price Cap Incentive framework used by small LDCs. Rates are filed publicly on the OEB's eFiling portal and can be examined line by line by any customer or consumer advocate. The framework caps year-over-year increases against inflation and productivity targets.
A practical implication: if a licensed retailer offers a low fixed per-kWh rate, you'll still pay the same Hydro Hawkesbury delivery and regulatory charges, the same Global Adjustment, the same HST. Switching retailers changes the commodity portion of your bill; switching never changes Hydro Hawkesbury'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: one main line, one backup
Hydro Hawkesbury operates with a five-person team, so the contact map is straightforward: one main phone number for billing, moves, account changes, new connections and outage reports, plus a backup number for after-hours emergencies if the main one is busy.
Outages, downed wires, emergencies. Backup line: 613-632-8603. For a downed live wire, call 911 first.
Monday to Friday during business hours (outage line answered 24/7)
850 Tupper Street
Hawkesbury, ON K6A 3S7
English & French (Prescott-Russell)
Town of Hawkesbury 613-632-0106 ext. 2020
For non-urgent questions you can use Hydro Hawkesbury's website at https://hydrohawkesbury.ca or the dedicated outages page for planned-work notices.
Report a power outage
If your power is out in Hawkesbury, call 613-632-6689 first (backup 613-632-8603). Hydro Hawkesbury does not publish a live outage map, so the phone call is also how you find out whether the outage is system-wide or limited to your transformer. Planned-outage notices for scheduled maintenance are posted on the outages page.
Call 613-632-6689 (or the backup 613-632-8603). Have your address and account number ready.
Hydro Hawkesbury's small staff or contracted line crew is dispatched. Mutual-aid agreements with neighbouring LDCs cover bigger storm events.
Single faults are typically restored in an hour or two in the urban core. Storm-wide outages affecting most of the town can take longer.
Power is verified at the meter. Reset clocks, check freezer contents, and report any damage right away by phone.
Reliability and the OEB scorecard
Hydro Hawkesbury reports its reliability performance to the OEB every year in its public scorecard. The headline metrics are SAIDI (average hours a customer was off per year) and SAIFI (average number of interruptions per customer per year), each measured against the OEB's distributor-specific performance standard. Because the town network is small and largely overhead, a single substation issue or a major storm can move Hydro Hawkesbury's annual numbers significantly compared to a larger urban LDC.
Planned outages for maintenance are normally posted at least 48 hours in advance on the outages page. If you depend on medical equipment, register with Hydro Hawkesbury so you receive priority notification.
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 Hydro Hawkesbury. Call 613-632-6689 during business hours or visit https://hydrohawkesbury.ca. The OEB sets a 5-business-day standard for routine residential connections once all customer-side conditions are met.
The civic address and the legal description of the lot inside the Town of Hawkesbury.
A sketch showing where you want the meter, service entrance, and run-back to the pole.
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. Hydro Hawkesbury cannot energise until ESA clears it.
For routine residential connections once all conditions are met. New industrial service drops or service upgrades involving pole work can run longer.
Fixed component + per-metre charge above the contribution threshold defined in Hydro Hawkesbury'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 (Time-of-Use, Tiered or Ultra-Low Overnight) at any time by contacting Hydro Hawkesbury. If you sign with a licensed retailer later, the retailer registers their contract with Hydro Hawkesbury and the commodity rate is replaced on your next bill cycle.
Moving home, transferring or closing a service
In Hawkesbury, the move-in / move-out conversation starts with Hydro Hawkesbury directly, not with a separate retailer. Because Hydro Hawkesbury is the default supplier, it closes the old billing account, sets up the new one, and triggers the final meter read. If you have a licensed retailer contract you also notify the retailer separately so they can transfer or cancel their commodity supply. Most move requests need at least 1 to 2 business days of notice; 5 is safer for end-of-month moves.
Call 613-632-6689. Give them the move date and your new address.
1 to 2 business days minimum; allow 5 for month-end moves. Same-day service is rare.
On the move-out date, Hydro Hawkesbury records the final reading remotely from the smart meter; no in-person visit required.
Hydro Hawkesbury 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 Hydro Hawkesbury if you want to change it at the new address.
Opening a fresh account is required at the new LDC. Common destinations from Hawkesbury include Hydro 2000 (Alfred-Plantagenet), Hydro Ottawa, or Hydro One Networks for rural Champlain. Moves to Grenville on the Quebec side land you on Hydro-Québec instead.
Meters, meter reading and accuracy
Hydro Hawkesbury owns the meter at your address. Since the province-wide smart-meter rollout was completed in 2010-2011, virtually every Hawkesbury 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 Hawkesbury residential address. Consumption reports back to Hydro Hawkesbury on its own; no action from you, no estimated bills.
Hydro Hawkesbury pulls the meter and tests it on a calibrated bench against Measurement Canada's tolerance.
Where supported, you can download your hour-by-hour consumption and pipe it 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 Hydro Hawkesbury?
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 Hydro Hawkesbury 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 Hydro Hawkesbury. 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 Ontario 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. They're the only basis on which any claim can be evaluated.
Regulator and complaint escalation
If you can't resolve something directly with Hydro Hawkesbury, there's 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 Hydro Hawkesbury's distribution tariff and reviews service-quality reporting (scorecards). Also runs the OEB Consumer Protection Office for individual disputes.
Administers Ontario Regulation 22/04, audits Hydro Hawkesbury's distribution-asset safety practices and tracks the Serious Electrical Incident Index. Issues electrical permits for in-house wiring.
Most issues resolve here. Phone 613-632-6689 during business hours; ask for the customer service supervisor if needed.
If the front line can't 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. For denied damage claims, civil court is the final route.