Ontario Hydro was included in the present study because it was widely seen by its critics as the epitome of the powerful electric utility beyond the control of the government of its province. It is significant, therefore, that it too has undergone remarkable change, and it provides us not with simply a case study of a reverse-adapted utility, but also another case of successful utility reform.

Ontario Hydro is the largest electric utility in Canada and one of the largest in North America. Since the 1960s its plans for future expansion have placed great reliance on nuclear generation, which has resulted in considerable controversy over its planning activities. At the beginning of the 1980s it appeared that a further eight nuclear stations after the one then under construction at Darlington were going to be needed by the end of the twentieth century. The capital cost of this expansion program would have been about $100b. Yet by 1992 the utility was no longer seeking approval for any new nuclear plant after Darlington and was instead intending to invest $6b in demand management over the next decade. Late in 1992, Maurice Strong (who had been Secretary-General of the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June that year) was appointed chairman of Ontario Hydro and, by early 1993, the utility once described by its critics as the ‘Electric Empire’ was considering ways of implementing the concept of sustainable development.

Ontario Hydro operates a system of about 30 000 MW capacity, and sells about 135 000 GWh/year, about half of which comes from nuclear capacity, with hydraulic and thermal plant contributing about a quarter each.