To have the electrical service at the address you are moving into transferred into your name, to have your account transferred from your existing location to the new location, or to close your electric account please call a Nelson Hydro Customer Service Representative at 250-352-8206 Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., or you can come directly to City Hall, or you can start the process online.

If terminating an account, please allow three working days' notice in advance of the date you want the service to cease. If the termination of service needs to involve removing electrical lines from a mobile home or building, please advise Nelson Hydro (the process may take longer).

Please note: An account is automatically terminated when an application for a new account is received from a new customer for that address. The registered customer is liable for all outstanding charges until the account is terminated. For more information, please call 250-352-8206.

Please provide as much advance notice as possible so that a meter reader can take readings at your old and new addresses and your closing and opening bills will accurately reflect your usage. Premises may be assumed to be vacant and subject to disconnection if we have not received an application for service. For more information, please call 250-352-8206.

Contact Nelson Hydro at 250-352-8240, Monday to Friday 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. to apply for a new electrical service or an electrical upgrade. You will need to hire a licensed electrical contractor. Your contractor can call Nelson Hydro on your behalf, or you can call directly. All required permits and payments must be received by Nelson Hydro before your electricity can be connected and energized.

For a first-time electrical service to a vacant lot, a site visit is necessary. Before any construction can begin, all permits, payments and required easements, rights-of-way pr covenants must be in place.

Please note: Your legal land description can be found in the land title, mortgage papers or tax assessment information. If you rent the property, this information can be found on your lease agreement. Contact your landlord or check with City Hall if you are unable to find your legal land description. For more information, please visit Electric Services.

All meters are read bimonthly. With over 11,000 meters in the Nelson Hydro service territory, meter reading is completed in cycles. The number of days in your billing period may vary based on these cycles. Each billing period will be roughly 60 days and you will receive your bill approximately one week after your reading has been taken. For example, when you receive a bill in January, you are being billed for November and December consumption.

There are three ways to pay your bill:

• Through the online Hydro Portal
• Pre-Authorized Payment (PAP) from your bank account on the first or fifteenth of each month, customers can make payments based on actual usage, or an amount based on an average of consumption over the last twelve months
• In person at City Hall

If payments are not received on time, penalties will be applied. If your payment is not received within 30 days, you will receive an Overdue Notice with a penalty. If payment has not been received after 45 days from the initial bill, a Disconnect Final Notice will be sent, which allows for payment to be made within 5 days. If payment is still not received at this point, service will be disconnected.

If you believe that there may be issues with your meter reading, please contact a Nelson Hydro Customer Service Representative at 250-352-8206, Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Power outages may be planned or unplanned. For safety reasons, there are occasions when Nelson Hydro must turn off the power intentionally in certain areas where construction, system upgrades, repairs and vegetation management are taking place. These outages are kept to a minimum and communicated in advance to minimize the impact on customers. Sign up for digital notifications here.

Unplanned power outages can happen for a variety of reasons, such as bad weather, motor vehicle accidents and even animals interfering with the equipment. Weather-related outages which include wind, snow and trees falling on lines are the most common sources of unplanned power outages in the Kootenays. Depending on the cause, some can be restored very quickly, while others can last a few hours or even a few days in the event of a major storm or emergency. 

To report a power outage or get the current outage status please call 1- 877-324-9376. This toll-free line is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

First, verify that your entire house is out of power. You may have only blown a fuse or tripped a circuit breaker and need to check your service panel. Check to see if nearby streetlights are off, or find out if your neighbours are out of power.

If you have verified that the outage is not related to your own power source, turn off or disconnect any appliances you were using when the outage occurred. Leave one light on so you will know when power has been restored.

To learn more contact Nelson Hydro 24-hour toll-free at 877-324-9376 (877-32-HYDRO) for status updates.

Trees sometimes pose a danger to power lines and to our customers, and Nelson Hydro maintains a three-metre clearance from primary distribution power lines for public safety by removing or trimming trees as necessary.

Nelson Hydro does not trim around service lines to homes, which is the customer’s responsibility. You can hire a licensed arborist, or you can do the work yourself. You must contact Nelson Hydro and communications companies (such as phone and cable) to drop the service lines while the work is being done. Contact Nelson Hydro 250-352-8240 between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m.

For more information see our Vegetation Management web page.

Stay at least 10 metres away from the downed power line. Watch for conductive materials like fences or water and secure the area. Do not touch or go near the wire; even if it is on the ground, it may still be live and could kill you. Contact Nelson Hydro (24-hour toll-free) at 877-324-9376 (877-32-HYDRO).

Nelson Hydro substations contain high voltage equipment of up to 63,000 volts. Even much lower voltages can jump through the air and reach you. Contact with high-voltage electricity can result in injury or death.

Knowing where these buried lines are before you dig can avert a major catastrophe. If you are planning a project that involves excavation near buried electrical cables, call BC One Call at 1-800-474-6886 to confirm the location of all underground utility services at your construction site. You must also contact City Operations to have water, sanitary and storm sewers located within the city limits.

Never touch the cable even if you think you have not caused any damage. Contact Nelson Hydro immediately (24-hour toll-free) at 877-324-9376 (877-32-HYDRO).

The City of Nelson Mayor and Council approve rates for the Nelson Hydro Urban Service Area and provide overall governance to the utility as a whole. Urban means areas within the City of Nelson. The British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) approves rates and rate-setting principles for the Nelson Hydro Rural Service Areas. Rural means areas outside of the municipal boundary and within the Regional District of Central Kootenay. For more information click here.

All bills are based on consumption, whether estimated or actual. The time of year, daylight hours, weather conditions, the efficiency of appliances and the hot water temperature setting in your home calm all affect your bill. Being energy-savvy keeps cost down! Billing period can range from 30 to 60 days, depending on a number of factors. For more information, please call 250-352-8206.

Nelson Hydro was established in 1892 and expanded to service rural area customers in 1922. 

Revenue and profits go directly back to the City of Nelson to provide safe, reliable electricity at a lower cost than the alternative of FortisBC. It also funds ongoing capital improvements such as the construction of the submarine cable connection for Harrop and at Lakeside to the Northshore, and into those many services that both rural and city residents enjoy such as parks, arts, and heritage street lights in the downtown.

There are 25 kilometres of transmission lines, 233 kilometres of distribution lines, and more than 5,000 power poles in the rural service area, more than double what is in the City. Therefore, it takes more resources to supply safe, reliable power to our rural customers than to our City of Nelson customers.

Our extensive Vegetation Management Program works year-round to reduce the impact of fallen trees and branches during windstorms. 

Rates for our customers vary, depending on their use. For example, homes that have access to natural gas for heating would have a lower electricity bill than those that use electricity for heating.

Based on an average use of 2,300 kWh of electricity bimonthly, a rural residential customer’s electric bill was $273.17 bimonthly in 2022. In 2023, this same customer’s bill would be $300.17 bimonthly. That is about $4.93 per day.

Yes! By reducing your energy use, you not only lower your electric bill, but also reduce the amount of power Nelson Hydro needs to purchase. Lower energy use benefits everyone.  

Check out the Energy Retrofit Program for energy-saving tips, energy evaluations, energy consumption monitors, infrared camera kits, and an infrared heat map of your home and learn how to save 30% and more on your energy bills. By using less energy, your personal impact on climate change is lessened.