Who Are the Core Customers of Hydro One Company?

Hydro One customers are mainly residential Hydro One customers and small businesses-about 1.5 million served directly-concentrated in rural and suburban Ontario where Hydro One acts as distributor, making this group the core revenue base and policy focus.

Municipal Local Distribution Companies rely on Hydro One's transmission network, which carries roughly 98 percent of Ontario's high-voltage capacity, positioning LDCs as a critical wholesale customer segment and operational partner for grid stability.

Hydro One serves a mixed customer base: retail consumers (residential and small business), institutional municipal LDCs, and commercial/industrial customers; this mix drives tariff design, capital planning, and reliability investments.

In 2025 and 2026, the fastest-growing and commercially pivotal sub-segment is electrification-first consumers-EV owners and heat-pump adopters-who increase peak loads and require upgraded connections, demand-response options, and targeted rate design.

Southwestern Ontario, notably the Windsor-St. Thomas EV battery corridor, and the GTA periphery concentrate the largest new load growth; in 2025 this required major high-voltage projects such as St. Clair and Chatham-to-Lakeshore to serve large industrial Hydro One customers and suburban electrification.

Rural electricity customers in Ontario and northern communities need grid hardening against extreme weather and new transmission to connect mining operations in the Ring of Fire; these segments drive capital for resilience and long-distance distribution upgrades.

Hydro One customers in industrial, municipal and rural segments rely on its extensive transmission network; the company's revenue mix is weighted toward large industrial customers and regional distribution contracts, supporting high-capacity projects and steady regulated returns.

Demand is shifting to the grid edge in suburban developments requiring localized transformer and feeder upgrades, and the EV battery manufacturing corridor is accelerating industrial demand; Hydro One's 2025 plan targets a projected provincial peak demand increase near 2 percent annually through 2026 to address these trends-see Product Model of Hydro One Company for context.

Hydro One customers gain new options as the company scales fixed wireless and fiber projects via its telecom subsidiary and partners with the Ivy Charging Network to deploy EV chargers along transmission corridors, targeting underserved rural electricity customers and highway corridors in Ontario.

Hydro One core customers-residential Hydro One customers, commercial Hydro One customers, and large industrial customers-see reliability upgrades funded by a disciplined capital program; the company sustained a roughly 6 percent annual rate-base growth through 2025 while prioritizing transmission and distribution projects in rural and Indigenous communities.

Repeat demand comes from bundled utility services: electricity delivery plus broadband or EV access increases stickiness for who are Hydro One customers in Ontario, particularly in remote areas where alternative providers are scarce.

The most important factor is infrastructure-led diversification: incremental non-regulated revenue from telecom and EV charging, combined with a multi-billion dollar capital expenditure program (maintained into early 2026), drives earnings stability while preserving service for rural electricity customers, farms, and industrial accounts-see Mission, Vision, and Values of Hydro One Company for context.