Canada

Getting Electricity in

Canada

Below is a detailed summary of the procedures, time and cost required for a business to obtain an electricity connection for a newly constructed building in Canada.

This information was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 185 economies. The most recent round of data collection was completed in June 2012.

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  • Standardized Company

  • Name of Utility: Toronto Hydro
  • City: Toronto

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Submit an application for an electrical connection to Toronto Hydro and await comment's on customer's proposal

An application for an electrical connection can be submitted through a written request by letter or email.
Required documents:
(1). Architectural, electrical, mechanical drawings (2). Survey plan and site plan (3).Locations of other services, gas, telephone, water, cable (4) required in-service date, proposed service entrance equipment, rated capacity and voltage rating, metering requirements and proposed load.
At this point Toronto Hydro requests for a preliminary design deposit based on ($10,000 per MVA of load) which is put towards the cost of the job once it proceeds.


Agency: Toronto Hydro 		15 calendar days CAD 1,400.0
2 Await completion and approval of the design of the project by an electrical design firm

The customer's electrical consultant prepares the design of service entrance requirement. The electrical design has to be approved by the Electrical Safety Authority. Usually the approval is obtained by the electrical consultant/hired electrical design firm.
Agency: Contractor 		13 calendar days CAD 2,125.0
3 Submit final design drawings to Toronto Hydro and await Offer to Connect

Customer to have their consultants provide Toronto Hydro with final design drawings and requirements, which Toronto Hydro prepares an Offer to Connect, which includes the connection charges and schedule of work.
During this time Toronto Hydro will check for feeder capacity, prepare design scope and cost, and present the customer with an offer to connect.
The OTC outlines the cost of the project and responsibilities of each party.

After the Offer to Connect is issued the applicant must sign and comply to all the conditions in the OTC before any further work can be completed, which includes payments.

An external inspection is performed by the utility to prepare the offer to connect and the technical study. No one from the applicant's party is present during the inspection.

Agency: Toronto Hydro 		22 calendar days no charge
4 Await completion of the external connection works performed by Toronto Hydro

After the estimate has been issued a part of the external connection works are carried out by Toronto Hydro. The works will most likely include the following: (a) From an overhead feeder install a primary riser switch and fusing at the pole. (b) Construct underground ducts from the base of the pole up to the customer’s property line. (c) Install underground primary cable from the riser switch to the padmounted structure. (d) Install padmounted transformer. (e) Make primary and secondary connection at padmounted transformer. The connection fees paid to Toronto Hydro include: engineering design, labor, material, equipment, overhead costs (including administration and inspection). The utility will obtain an excavation permit for the part of the work which is their responsibility.

Agency: Toronto Hydro 		85 calendar days CAD 44,100.0
* 5 Await completion of the external connection works performed by a contractor

While Toronto Hydro finishes its part of the connection works an electrical contractor proceeds with his part of the works. The contractor's work includes: a) Install padmounted structure on customer property. (b) Construct underground ducts from padmounted structure to join ducts provided by Toronto Hydro at property line and construct ducts underground from padmounted structure to Customer building. (c) Install secondary cable from padmounted transformer to building.
Agency: Contractor 		14 calendar days CAD 20,500.0
* 6 Await and obtain an inspection of the internal wiring

An inspection of internal wiring is required and can be performed by the Electrical Safety Authority at any time during rough in and final stages of the process. For this work one can expect 2 inspections. The first when the ducts/conduits and transformer pad are being placed in the ground as an inspection is required on the grounding and duct/conduits being covered over, and the second inspection just prior to requesting a turn-on notification from Toronto Hydro.
Agency: Electrical Safety Authority 		1 calendar day CAD 325.0
* 7 Await and obtain an inspection of the internal wiring

An inspection of internal wiring is required and can be performed by Electrical Safety Authority at any time during rough in and final stages of the process so there are at least two inspections of the internal wiring. The inspection would be performed by the Electrical Safety Authority, who in turn would submit a "Turn On Notice" to Toronto Hydro. This allows Toronto Hydro to provide the final connection of power to the facility in question.
Agency: Electrical Safety Authority 		1 calendar day CAD 325.0
8 Await final inspection, installation of the meter and final connection

Once Toronto Hydro receives the connection authorization, the final inspection is performed during meter installation and the final connection can be made. There is no separate supply contract to be signed. The supply contract is signed at the same time as the connection contract in one contract.
Agency: Toronto Hydro 		7 calendar days no charge
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.
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