Today, Ontario-based electricity transmission and distribution utility Hydro One announced it has helped more than 16,000 customers access over $7 million in financial relief during the pandemic. Indeed, this relief came as part of its Connected for Life initiative.
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About the Connected for Life initiative
Accordingly, and launched in February, Connected for Life is the company’s promise to ensure customers experiencing hardship continue to have electricity. Besides, the initiative includes working with Hydro One’s customer care team to access flexible payment options. In that way, customers can also access financial assistance from government programs, and also from the company’s own Pandemic Relief Program.
In this sense, Jason Fitzsimmons, Chief Corporate Affairs and Customer Care Officer, Hydro One, said in a media release; “As Ontario continues to reopen and the economy restarts; we want our customers to know that we are here to support them.”
Thus, “whether it’s providing financial relief through our Pandemic Relief Fund and government programs; or also assisting them with flexible payment options and choice;” continued Fitzsimmons, “we are committed to doing everything we can to help our customers stay connected; in brief, that’s our Connected for Life promise.”
Additionally, Fitzsimmons said that Hydro One continues to encourage customers experiencing financial hardship to contact its customer care team. In that way, the utility can connect them with the right support programs. And also work with them to help get them back on track.
Hydro One and its Pandemic Relief Program
Indeed, and it is worth noting, in March 2020, Hydro One launched a Pandemic Relief Program to provide financial assistance for customers. Thus, to further support customers during the pandemic, Hydro One also introduced increased account flexibility, customization, and choice; particularly, by introducing new features for customers.
For instance, these features include choosing their billing due date; also flattening usage spikes from temperature fluctuations through balanced billing; and lastly, monitoring electricity consumption by signing up for early high-usage notifications.
In this way, the company also returned approximately $5 million in security deposits to more than 4,000 business customers; mainly, to provide support during the pandemic.
Hydro One Limited is Ontario’s most extensive electricity transmission and distribution provider, with approximately 1.4 million valued customers. Also, with roughly $30.3 billion in assets as of December 31, 2020. Besides, it had annual revenues in 2020 of approximately $7.3 billion.
