Toronto Hydro Smart Meters and Ontario's Time-of-Use Pricing
This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.
19 sourced claims on this page, none individually verified yet — turn on “Sources in the text” to see each one.
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✎ Corrected 4 Nov 2026 1 source added. What changed →
The business case arrived only after the government announced the rollout, and the Auditor General found it overstated the benefit: close to CAD 2 billion spent against an initial CAD 1 billion projection.
what does this mean?
The strongest source behind this entry is an independent peer-reviewed or academic study. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →Part of 1001 Smart Cities — 1,247 documented projects · 🏙️ 9 more in Toronto · 🔌 Smart grid & energy guide · ⚡ Energy projects
Ontario announced a smart meter for every home and small business in April 2004 and legislated it through the Energy Conservation Responsibility Act, 2006; Toronto Hydro, wholly owned by the City of Toronto, moved its customers onto time-of-use rates, the plan most Ontario households still pay, and the province reached 4.8 million meters by 2014. Prices are set by the Ontario Energy Board, not the utility: time-of-use is the default plan, and customers may switch to tiered prices (since November 2020) or an ultra-low overnight plan (since 2023). Ontario's Auditor General reported in 2014 that the rollout had cost close to CAD 2 billion against an initial CAD 1 billion projection, and that the business case, submitted only after the government announced the rollout, overstated the benefit. Toronto Hydro began a five-year replacement of the first-generation meters in May 2024.
📊 Impact
Auditor General of Ontario (2014): projected 15-year net benefits of ~CAD 600M were overstated by at least CAD 512M, leaving ~CAD 88M. A peer-reviewed Energy Policy study of 20,000+ Ontario households found demand fell 2.6% on-peak and 2.4% mid-peak after the switch to time-of-use billing.
🎓 Lesson
Installing the meters was the easy half. Ontario delivered a full-population rollout, then found the price signal too weak to move much load — by 2014 on-peak cost only 1.8 times off-peak, down from three times in 2006, and Toronto's winter 2026–27 tariff charges 18.9 cents per kWh on-peak against 9.1 off-peak — and the business case arrived only after the government had announced the rollout.
Sources
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📅 How old is the evidence?
Two clocks, kept apart: when this entry’s sources were published, and what has happened to its record in the atlas. Documented span: since 2004. 7 of 12 sources carry a publication date, from 2014 to 25 February 2026.
When the sources were published
- Office of the Auditor General of Ontario · oversight bodyAuditor General of Ontario — 2014 Annual Report, Section 3.11 Smart Metering Initiative
- Office of the Auditor General of Ontario · oversight bodyAuditor General of Ontario — news release, 2014 Annual Report s.3.11
- Legislative Assembly of Ontario · regional governmentLegislative Assembly of Ontario, Standing Committee on Public Accounts — Smart Metering Initiative
- University of Waterloo · researchUniversity of Waterloo — study of Ontario time-of-use pricing (Miller, Golab & Rosenberg, Energy Policy)
- Ontario Energy Board · oversight bodyOntario Energy Board — Backgrounder: November 1, 2020 Electricity Pricing Changes (13 October 2020)
- Ontario Energy Board · oversight bodyOntario Energy Board — Summer Hours and New Price Plan Coming May 1 (11 April 2023)
- Toronto Hydro · utilityToronto Hydro Corporation — Annual Information Form for the year ended 31 December 2025
What happened to this record
- Entered the record
- Sources last read
- 1 source added
Show your work What this page rests on and what it can’t tell you · all 19 claims with their sources · the forensic record
Evidence file · public beta 19 addressable claims, 12 source dossiers, one permanent baseline. The file is unreviewed — an AI-assisted structural migration, not a human or expert endorsement. Every revision keeps a permanent copy under revision history.
Inspect the claims, one by one — verbatim text, sources and caveats for all 19
The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.
clm-9c5967380d23fec6
quantitative
Ontario announced a smart meter for every home and small business in April 2004
Sources carrying this claim
clm-3b3fdcd0822a234d
quantitative
legislated it through the Energy Conservation Responsibility Act, 2006
Sources carrying this claim
clm-19d5adfc0487574f
descriptive
Toronto Hydro, wholly owned by the City of Toronto
Sources carrying this claim
clm-c3bb67c252cf53b7
descriptive
moved its customers onto time-of-use rates, the plan most Ontario households still pay
Sources carrying this claim
clm-195fe7c197678d4e
quantitative
the province reached 4.8 million meters by 2014
Sources carrying this claim
clm-a30ef17556d66eff
descriptive
Prices are set by the Ontario Energy Board, not the utility
Sources carrying this claim
clm-6c8d2e5f9eb568a3
descriptive
time-of-use is the default plan
Sources carrying this claim
clm-1af62c3857955a34
quantitative
customers may switch to tiered prices (since November 2020)
Sources carrying this claim
clm-55b914ade8d98b98
quantitative
or an ultra-low overnight plan (since 2023)
Sources carrying this claim
clm-1ce4cc94c03f740e
quantitative
Ontario's Auditor General reported in 2014 that the rollout had cost close to CAD 2 billion against an initial CAD 1 billion projection
Sources carrying this claim
clm-9227c006b4b97e6e
descriptive
the business case, submitted only after the government announced the rollout, overstated the benefit
Sources carrying this claim
clm-55414fd149d1f67b
quantitative
Toronto Hydro began a five-year replacement of the first-generation meters in May 2024
Sources carrying this claim
clm-b853575955fa7d86
quantitative
projected 15-year net benefits of ~CAD 600M were overstated by at least CAD 512M, leaving ~CAD 88M
Sources carrying this claim
clm-102bf17e29607335
quantitative
A peer-reviewed Energy Policy study of 20,000+ Ontario households found demand fell 2.6% on-peak and 2.4% mid-peak after the switch to time-of-use billing.
Sources carrying this claim
clm-e4e80ddd948bf94c
descriptive
Ontario delivered a full-population rollout
Sources carrying this claim
clm-8c57341dd92ceb5d
descriptive
then found the price signal too weak to move much load
Sources carrying this claim
clm-ee24070cd8140751
quantitative
by 2014 on-peak cost only 1.8 times off-peak, down from three times in 2006
Sources carrying this claim
clm-d47a89ee86dccc03
quantitative
Toronto's winter 2026–27 tariff charges 18.9 cents per kWh on-peak against 9.1 off-peak
Sources carrying this claim
clm-a21fd7ec0c744747
descriptive
the business case arrived only after the government had announced the rollout
Sources carrying this claim
Forensic record — source dossiers, gaps, hashes and the exact revision this page renders
This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.
Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.
sha256:e5115f470e7d8bf7c70d1d544b2a60a782038f19b760c59b734ca427a841c557
- 19
- of 19 claims mapped
- 12
- source dossiers
- 5
- publication dates recorded
- 1
- archives linked
- 0
- exact locators
- 0
- content captures hashed
Governance facts carried by the record
- Operator
- Toronto Hydro-Electric System Limited (City of Toronto); prices and price plans set by the Ontario Energy Board
- Actor types
- utility, regional-government
- Funding model
- utility
- Funding description
- Ontario electricity ratepayers, recovered through OEB-regulated distribution rates
- Cost
- ≈CAD 1.9B province-wide (Ontario, to 2014); initially projected at ≈CAD 1B
- Ownership
- Not recorded
- Decision rights
- Not recorded
- Exit conditions
- Not recorded
12 source dossiers
Auditor General of Ontario — news release, 2014 Annual Report s.3.11
- Stable source ID
src-b2743ebf4abd88a4- Publisher
- Name not classified · auditor.on.ca
- Type / language
- pdf · language not classified
- Published
- 2014-12-09
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-11-03
- Dossier created
- 2026-11-04
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Release title, verified in the document metadata: 'Rollout of $1.9-billion Smart Metering Initiative Had Serious Shortcomings — Benefits Not Yet Realized'. This is the authority for the CAD 1.9B headline figure.
Auditor General of Ontario — 2014 Annual Report, Section 3.11 Smart Metering Initiative
- Stable source ID
src-b9c003b536e4f828- Publisher
- Name not classified · auditor.on.ca
- Type / language
- pdf · language not classified
- Published
- Not recorded
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-11-03
- Dossier created
- 2026-11-04
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Carries the audit findings: 'its projected net benefits of approximately $600 million over 15 years were significantly overstated by at least $512 million', which 'should have been reflected as only $88 million over 15 years', and that costs 'had reached almost $2 billion (compared to the initial projected cost of $1 billion)' as of May 2014. Text reached via the PDF's search index; the file does not render for automated extraction.
Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Standing Committee on Public Accounts — Smart Metering Initiative
- Stable source ID
src-6f81b47dbed1ddec- Publisher
- Name not classified · ola.org
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- Not recorded
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-11-03
- Dossier created
- 2026-11-04
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Independent confirmation of scale and sequence: '4.8 million smart meters had been installed in homes and at small businesses' as of May 2014, and 'no cost-benefit analyses or business case studies were done before the government announced Smart Metering in April 2004'.
Toronto Hydro — Choose your electricity price plan (Customer Choice)
- Stable source ID
src-f390aa25215dd5b7- Publisher
- Name not classified · torontohydro.com
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- Not recorded
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-11-03
- Dossier created
- 2026-11-04
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Establishes time-of-use as the default: 'regardless of which plan you choose, your first bill will be charged on the Time-of-Use price plan.' Lists TOU, Tiered and Ultra-Low Overnight; the Ontario Energy Board sets all rates and thresholds.
- Claims linked
Ontario Energy Board — Choosing your electricity price plan
- Stable source ID
src-802b3149c15145a3- Publisher
- Name not classified · oeb.ca
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- Not recorded
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-11-03
- Dossier created
- 2026-11-04
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Regulator's own statement: 'The choice between TOU, ULO and Tiered prices is available to residential and small business customers that have smart meters and are billed under the OEB's RPP', and 'Most residential and small business customers in Ontario pay TOU prices.'
- Claims linked
Ontario Energy Board — Summer Hours and New Price Plan Coming May 1 (11 April 2023)
- Stable source ID
src-1a6d51c71a27df3c- Publisher
- Name not classified · oeb.ca
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2023-04-11
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-11-03
- Dossier created
- 2026-11-04
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Dates the ultra-low overnight option: utilities could offer ULO from 1 May 2023 and 'By November 1, 2023, all utilities must offer ULO to their customers.'
- Claims linked
Toronto Hydro — Residential electricity rates (2026)
- Stable source ID
src-4c02244edc31ec9f- Publisher
- Name not classified · torontohydro.com
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- Not recorded
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-11-03
- Dossier created
- 2026-11-04
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Current tariff, summer 2026: off-peak 9.8, mid-peak 15.7, on-peak 20.3 cents/kWh — an on-peak to off-peak ratio of about 2.1 to 1. Confirms 'The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) sets and approves all electricity rates.'
- Claims linked
University of Waterloo — study of Ontario time-of-use pricing (Miller, Golab & Rosenberg, Energy Policy)
- Stable source ID
src-7bd82343d79faa72- Publisher
- Name not classified · uwaterloo.ca
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2017-05-30
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-11-03
- Dossier created
- 2026-11-04
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- Open archived copy ↗ · 2026-03-07
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Peer-reviewed measurement: 'residential demand for electricity dropped just 2.6 per cent during on-peak periods and 2.4 per cent during mid-peak periods.' Based on 20,000+ households at one southwestern Ontario distributor, nine months before and after time-of-use began in November 2011 — Ontario-wide behaviour, not Toronto-specific.
- Claims linked
Toronto Hydro — Meter replacement program
- Stable source ID
src-f5f4f57576017d35- Publisher
- Name not classified · torontohydro.com
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- Not recorded
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-11-03
- Dossier created
- 2026-11-04
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Currency check: 'As of May 2024, we've begun a five-year project to replace residential and small business customer meters', swapping first-generation for next-generation meters as the originals approach end of life.
- Claims linked
Toronto Hydro — Green Button
- Stable source ID
src-f79ce1acc8ee13a1- Publisher
- Name not classified · torontohydro.com
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- Not recorded
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-11-03
- Dossier created
- 2026-11-04
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Supports the data-access claim: customers download their own consumption data (Download My Data) and can authorise third parties to receive it (Connect My Data), revocable from the self-serve portal.
- Claims linked
- Background source; no baseline claim points here
Toronto Hydro Corporation — Annual Information Form for the year ended 31 December 2025
- Stable source ID
src-507fc7a2b48614ea- Publisher
- Name not classified · torontohydro.com
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2026-02-25
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-11-03
- Dossier created
- 2026-11-04
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Corporate source for ownership: Toronto Hydro Corporation is wholly owned by the City of Toronto, serving roughly 800,000 customers.
- Claims linked
Ontario Energy Board — Backgrounder: November 1, 2020 Electricity Pricing Changes (13 October 2020)
- Stable source ID
src-7c7b6d8bfb000e53- Publisher
- Name not classified · oeb.ca
- Type / language
- pdf · language not classified
- Published
- 2020-10-13
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-11-03
- Dossier created
- 2026-11-04
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
The regulator's backgrounder for the price changes of 1 November 2020: time-of-use customers can now choose to switch to tiered prices, and those who want to stay on time-of-use pricing need do nothing.
- Claims linked
Known limits of this file
- Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
- Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
- A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
- The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.
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📎 Cite this project
1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Toronto Hydro Smart Meters and Ontario's Time-of-Use Pricing” — Toronto, Canada. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/toronto-smart-meters-tou/ (last verified 2026-11-03). Data: CC BY 4.0.
The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.
