Hydro Ottawa says it welcomes the recommendation of a panel of three former MPPs, who suggest Ontario's 73 local hydro providers should be consolidated into eight to 12 regional distribution companies.

From the report

"The very idea of an LDC [local distribution company] is going to change. When Ontario’s distributors were born, they were the hightech companies of their age and helped transform the economy.

"A lot has changed since then, but not in the distribution sector. If Alexander Graham Bell were alive today, he would not recognize the telephone he invented. Thomas Edison on the other hand, the father of the light bulb and electricity distribution, would feel quite at home with the current use of his inventions."

(Source: Renewing Ontario’s Electricity Distribution Sector: Putting the Consumer First)

Merging many smaller hydro companies across the province would save more than $1 billion over 10 years, according to a panel of former Liberal cabinet minister Murray Elston, former Tory MPP David McFadden, and Floyd Laughren, the finance minister under the NDP.

"This is the most significant test the distribution system has faced in one hundred years. Failure to meet the challenge will mean a diminished future for the people of Ontario," the authors write.

The panel's report says the consolidation is the best way to fix aging transmission lines and transform the system for smart technologies and electric cars.

The change should be voluntary, and utilities should be given two years to work out their own arrangements, according to the report.

Hydro Ottawa seeks expansion

Hydro Ottawa CEO Bryce Conrad said his company would be keen to acquire other companies, possibly under a new name.

"We think we have a lot to offer and we think there'd be a benefit to the people of Hawkesbury and Renfrew and Kingston," said Conrad.

Conrad said there are also people within Ottawa's city limits who get their power from Hydro One, but would prefer to be more connected to the city.

"Say they live in Metcalfe or Greely or Arnprior, they're actually paying more than residents of Ottawa on an annual basis, roughly $350 more," said Conrad.

Smaller utility says service will likely suffer

But smaller utility providers say bigger isn't always better.

Réné Beaulne runs the smallest power utility in Ontario, providing power to 700 customers in Alfred, Ont., and to 500 in Plantagenet, some 60 kilometres east of Ottawa.

He said people will hand him their hydro bill cheque on the street, and said keeping things small allows him to hit his conservation targets, because instead of a mailing blitz, he walks into businesses and talks to them one-on-one about how to save power.

"Are they going to give the same service? I doubt it," said Beaulne.

The report said as more Ontarians adjust thermostats with a smart phone, the century-old patchwork of small, local hydro companies has to end.

"Unless the entire distribution industry spends the money needed to modernize its equipment and offer new services, differences will continue to grow between two classes of electricity consumers: those who have the ability to control costs and obtain value-added services from their electricity distributor; and those without access to such services," the authors contend.