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Pictured (left to right): Oshawa Mayor Dan Carter, Oshawa Power President & CEO Daniel Arbour, The Honourable Sam Oosterhoff, Associate Minister of Energy-Intensive Industries, and Chair of the Economic & Development Services Committee Tito-Dante Marimpietri.

Oshawa, ON – This afternoon Oshawa Power welcomed The Honourable Sam Oosterhoff, Associate Minister of Energy-Intensive Industries, Oshawa Mayor Dan Carter, and Chair of the Economic & Development Services Committee Tito-Dante Marimpietri to 2072 Thornton Rd. N to announce plans for Oshawa Power’s new facility in North Oshawa.

This investment will consolidate all operational, administrative, and storage needs into one complex, allowing the local utility to overcome the logistical challenges of having departments spread across multiple buildings and storage yards and improving organizational efficiency. The new 6.5-acre site will feature a modern two-storey office complex of approximately 30,000 square feet, along with an equipment storage yard, warehouse, and vehicle garage.

Following a comprehensive needs assessment and site search, 2072 Thornton Rd. N was chosen for its proximity to Oshawa’s largest growth area and the site’s suitability to meet the utility’s operational needs. Construction is scheduled to commence no later than 2026, with completion and relocation from the current site at Metcalfe St. and Simcoe St. S anticipated in early 2027.

Oshawa Power is collaborating with a local architectural firm to ensure the building design meets accessibility, inclusivity, and sustainability goals. Preliminary renders have been developed, with final designs subject to further refinement during the design and construction phases.

Quotes

“We are thrilled to begin the process of moving to a new facility that will better accommodate our fleet, consolidate operations, and allow us to continue providing Oshawa with safe and reliable electricity for decades to come. We look forward to enhancing our service capabilities, fostering innovation, and supporting our community from our accessible, state-of-the-art facility.”

– Daniel Arbour, President & CEO, Oshawa Power

“This investment will enhance Oshawa Power’s logistical efficiency, allowing for better management and delivery of electricity as the city grows and energy demands increase. The Ontario government is committed to ensuring that all parts of our energy delivery system are efficient and ready to provide sustainable, reliable, and affordable power to our communities now and into the future. I am pleased to be here today to celebrate this important step toward a more resilient local energy infrastructure.”

– The Honourable Sam Oosterhoff, Associate Minister of Energy-Intensive Industries

“Our community has benefited greatly from a dedicated local electric utility over the past 130 years. As our economy and city continue to grow, Oshawa Power will play a critical role in supporting the development of the necessary infrastructure and capacity required for increased electrification. This new building is an exciting step forward.”

– Dan Carter, Mayor of the City of Oshawa

About Oshawa Power

Oshawa Power is dedicated to the evolving needs of our customers as a leading enabler of integrated critical energy and infrastructure. Oshawa Power is wholly owned by the great City of Oshawa.

Oshawa Power is warning customers to remain aware of an increase in scams targeting local electricity customers after the company has been notified of increasing fraudulent activity.

In this new scheme, customers are contacted by a number claiming to be a representative from Oshawa Power and threatening immediate disconnection of service unless payment is made. The fraudsters have set up a return number that mimics Oshawa Power’s automated phone system and will encourage customers to make payment immediately via direct e-transfer, cryptocurrency, or cash deposit.

Customers are reminded that Oshawa Power will not accept payment through direct e-transfer, cryptocurrency, cash deposit, or gift card. To learn more about available payment methods, click here.

Oshawa Power is also committed to working with customers to avoid disconnection and arrange a payment plan. To learn more about the disconnection process, click here.

If you receive a suspicious call from an individual claiming to be an Oshawa Power representative, you are encouraged to hang up immediately and contact Oshawa Power’s Customer Service Centre by phone at (905) 723-4626.

If you have been a victim of fraud, you are encouraged to contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501.

To learn more about energy scams and how to avoid them, please visit the Ontario Energy Board’s Energy Scams resource.

About Oshawa Power

Oshawa Power is dedicated to the evolving needs of our customers as a leading enabler of integrated critical energy and infrastructure. Oshawa Power is wholly owned by the great City of Oshawa.

For Oshawa Power updates, follow us on X, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Media Contact

communications@oshawapower.ca

Oshawa Power will host their Annual General Meeting on Thursday, June 23rd at 10:00 a.m.

The meeting will be hosted at The Harmony Events Centre located at 1011 Bloor St. East, Oshawa.

Please Note:

Public Health Authority guidelines for physical distancing and gathering will apply, as well as any requirements put in place by the Harmony Events Centre.

Please RSVP to ldafoe@opuc.on.ca.

Oshawa, Ontario – As Oshawa Power crews wrap up restoration efforts in our city and travel to assist neighbouring utilities in bringing power back to families across the Durham Region and the rest of the province, we will continue to assess damages that occurred to our grid. By understanding the magnitude of the damage caused by Saturday’s storm, we can begin planning solutions to strengthen our grid against future inclement weather events.

We understand that as our climate changes and weather events increase in frequency, resiliency (strength of our system) and redundancy (backup systems) are keys to keeping the lights on across Oshawa and minimizing restoration times during outage events.

“With a strong emergency response plan and incredible crews who without hesitation worked around the clock, we were able to restore power quickly to Oshawa. We are incredibly proud of our crew, who now continue to assist neighbouring utilities. We would also like to extend our gratitude to the emergency service and municipal workers who helped keep Oshawa safe in the storm. Last but not least, we thank you, our customers, for your patience and encouragement as we dealt with numerous outages across the city.”

– Ivano Labricciosa, President & CEO

By the Numbers

9,000+

On Saturday afternoon, a little more than 9,000 Oshawa Power customers lost power to their homes or places of business — the most in a single outage event since December 2013’s ice storm. Within minutes, the Oshawa Power team began to assemble to plan for restoration efforts.

99%

Number of Oshawa Power customers who had power restored to their homes by Sunday evening.

85+ km/h

Wind speeds during the storm reached upwards of 85 kph as recorded at the Oshawa Executive Airport. The resiliency of the infrastructure put in place over careful planning of the last ten-twenty years lessened the impact and supported our restoration efforts.

8.1 kilometres

Length of overhead wires were replaced in the aftermath of the storm or approximately enough to stretch from Oshawa’s eastern border with Courtice to its western border with Whitby.

25 poles

Crews replaced 25 broken poles over the weekend.

Thousands of additional materials

Including insulator, sleeve, transformer, switch, arrestor, etc. repairs and replacements, our team used thousands of additional parts and materials in our restoration effort. Through careful inventory planning, Oshawa Power was prepared with all required materials.

For more information on how we are preparing our grid for the future and consistently working to minimize outages, visit our Capital Rebuild Plan and Tree Trimming web pages.

Media Contact

Oshawa Power Communications

Summer Time-of-Use hours and Tiered thresholds take effect Sunday, May 1st 2022. Here is everything you need to know about the switch.

About Time-of-Use (TOU) rates

Under Time-of-Use (TOU) pricing, customers are charged according to the day of the week and time of day that they use electricity. This gives customers the option to shift higher electricity-use activities — such as laundry or running the dishwasher — to off-peak periods, which are charged at a lower rate.

There are three different TOU price periods: on-peak, mid-peak and off-peak.

May 1, 2022 Time of Use Rates:

On Peak – 17.0 ¢/kWh
Mid Peak – 11.3 ¢/kWh
Off – Peak – 8.2 ¢/kWh

Summer pricing periods

Summer TOU Hours

To learn more about TOU rates, visit our Time of Use page.

About Tiered rates

Tiered pricing separates electricity consumption into two price tiers. Customers are charged one rate for electricity usage up to a certain amount of consumption (or threshold) per month, and a higher rate for electricity used above that amount.

Summer pricing tiers

Tiered rates pricing – per 30 days (residential customers)
Price tier Description Price
Tier 1 Up to 600 kWh/month 9.8 ¢/kWh
Tier 2 More than 600 kWh/month 11.5 ¢/kWh

Tiered rates pricing – per 30 days (non-residential customers)
Price tier Description Price
Tier 1 Up to 750 kWh/month 9.8 ¢/kWh
Tier 2 More than 750 kWh/month 11.5 ¢/kWh

Oshawa, ON – Oshawa Power reports another record year for conservation during Earth Hour. The City of Oshawa conserved approximately 27,100kWh, a net change of 19% compared to the average of the three (3) previous Saturdays and surpasses the previous 2021 high, which was a savings of approximately 10% (14,364kWh).

Our total savings of over 68,000kWh during Earth Hour since 2019 equals an average of approximately 12% (17,000kWh) lower electricity usage than the average March Saturday for the hour.

“This year, the Oshawa Community really delivered and together, we can build a more sustainable future. Oshawa Power is committed to energy conservation and will continue to promote activities that conserve energy and lower our overall carbon footprint.”

– Ivano Labricciosa, President & CEO

To put these energy savings into perspective, 27,100 kWh is roughly equivalent to:

  • 9,000 hours of A/C use
  • 13,500 dishwasher cycles
  • Running an average refrigerator non-stop for 44 years
  • 225,000 hours of television
  • 1,800,000 LED bulbs turned off for one hour
  • 4,000 loads of laundry (wash and dry!)

About Earth Hour

Earth Hour is a worldwide movement for the planet that the World Wildlife Fund (“WWF”) started in 2007 with a lights-off event in Sydney, Australia. Since then, it has grown to engage more than 7,000 cities and towns worldwide, and the one-hour event continues to remain the key driver of the now larger movement of stopping climate change. For more information on Earth Hour, visit www.earthhour.org.

Media Contact
Oshawa Power Communications Team
communications@opuc.on.ca

Oshawa, Ontario – Oshawa Power is excited to announce the launch of its newest improvement initiative, an online virtual assistant called Watt.

Oshawa Power is adapting to the desire for flexibility of the Oshawa community by integrating innovative technology into its customer services. Watt is a ChatBot housed on the Oshawa Power site and is available 24/7 to support after-hours inquiries and customers’ preferences for online connection and account management.

Watt, the Virtual Assistant, helps users by serving up the information they need without navigating through the entire website. Combining a virtual assistant with our MyOshawaPower customer portal enables customers to take control of their service experience. Customers determine how and when they want to interact and learn how to self-manage their accounts entirely.

“Oshawa Power is focused on providing new and innovative ways to support our customers while maintaining our commitment to low rates. Responsiveness is a key indicator for satisfaction, and we are confident that including Watt as an additional means to connect with us will support our growing number of customers who prefer interacting with us online and after our traditional working hours.”

– Susanna Beckstead, VP Finance & Corporate Services

Feedback is critical for ongoing improvements and enhancements. Users are encouraged to submit their feedback directly within the tool.

Oshawa, Ontario – EnerFORGE, a subsidiary of Oshawa Power and Utilities Corporation, along with equity partner, Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-operative (OREC), have announced the acquisition of a portfolio of Ontario-based renewable energy assets. These assets, located in Bruce and Huron Counties, have been added to the growing EnerFORGE distributed energy operating platform and are an exciting investment for both partners as they continue to forge ahead with the future of renewable energy generation growth in Ontario.

“The partnership with OREC was a perfect match when the opportunity to acquire solar and wind generation assets presented itself. For Oshawa Power and EnerFORGE the acquisitions are in line with the company’s strategic growth objective of expanding its renewable energy asset portfolio. This acquisition will increase Oshawa Power’s installed solar capacity by about 30%, while diversifying the company’s generation portfolio with the addition of the first utility-scale wind asset to the portfolio,” stated Ivano Labricciosa, President and CEO of Oshawa Power Group of Companies.

“EnerFORGE is a leader in the Ontario renewable energy, cleantech, and energy transition space, and as a company we recognize it is not only core to our company’s strategy, but also that it is the right thing to do,” noted Scott Barker, Vice President, Business Development, EnerFORGE.

“OREC is excited to bring its co-operative ownership model to this wind turbine in partnership with EnerFORGE. Our co-operative is committed to welcoming members and investors from the surrounding communities and stay true to our principles of local ownership and continuing to diversify our growing renewable energy portfolio,” announced Graham Findlay, Vice President, OREC.

Fogler Rubinoff, The Redstone Company, and WSP Canada acted as EnerFORGE’s advisors on this transaction.

Media Contact:
Josh McCulloch
jmcculloch@opuc.on.ca