Entegrus Powerlines agreed not to pass the cost of an electricity-assistance billing error back to affected customers, as part of an Ontario Energy Board agreement that also required a $25,000 administrative penalty.
The board accepted the agreement on March 13, 2026. The Assurance of Voluntary Compliance, EB-2026-0019, signed March 3, addressed the handling of Ontario Electricity Support Program credits and customer deposits.
The central protection was that Entegrus would bear the cost of $40,899 in electricity credits it had already restored. It could not recover that money by rebilling customers for water or wastewater charges that the credits had mistakenly offset.
Electricity assistance applied to water bills
Entegrus provides combined electricity, water and wastewater billing in several southwestern Ontario communities. Three customer complaints about assistance credits led the OEB to inspect its practices.
The Ontario Electricity Support Program gives eligible low-income households monthly electricity credits. Under the rules described in the assurance, any credit exceeding the electricity amount owing carries forward to the next month. It is not available to pay unrelated water or wastewater charges.
The inspection found that Entegrus had applied $50,812 in excess electricity credits to water and wastewater charges for 150 customers between October 2016 and November 2022. Billing changes were implemented in November 2022 to prevent recurrence.
The assurance also records problems when accounts closed. Entegrus refunded $4,239 in unused program credits to 49 customers instead of returning the funds through the Independent Electricity System Operator. It transferred $2,888 in credits to new accounts for 26 customers who moved within its service territory, rather than returning those credits to the program.
A different error affected 77 customers who moved outside the service territory. Entegrus sent $3,927 to the system operator after mistaking customer security deposits for unused assistance credits. Those deposits should have been returned to the customers.
Correcting credits without creating new customer debts
By the end of 2022, Entegrus had restored $40,899 in misallocated electricity credits to affected customers who still had accounts. That allowed the funds to reduce future electricity bills, as intended.
The 2026 agreement prevented the correction from becoming a new demand for payment of the water charges originally offset in error. If Entegrus had already collected such amounts, it agreed to refund them with interest. If it had demanded payment but not collected it, it agreed to tell the customer that the demand had been withdrawn.
Customer communications were subject to OEB staff approval.
The assurance separately recorded a voluntary $21,127 payment to the system operator in August 2025, calculated at that time to address several categories of wrongly handled credits and interest.
Under the new agreement, Entegrus also committed to contribute $11,404 plus $1,433 in interest to its Low-income Energy Assistance Program. Those amounts were separate from the $25,000 administrative penalty payable to the OEB.
Shareholders, not ratepayers, to bear the cost
Entegrus committed to complete the specified remedial measures by March 31, 2026. The administrative penalty was due within four weeks of acceptance.
The company agreed to treat the remedial amounts as shareholder costs and not seek recovery of any costs related to the assurance through a rate application.
This was an accepted compliance agreement, rather than a criminal conviction or a contested damages judgment. The assurance states that it has the same force and effect as an OEB order and that failure to comply would breach such an order.
The outcome addressed both the proper use of government electricity assistance and who should bear the financial consequences when a utility applies that assistance incorrectly.
