ENWIN Group has officially purchased E.L.K. Energy Inc.
The Town of Essex and ENWIN have announced that the complete acquisition for E.L.K. Energy officially closed effective Nov. 28.
As a result of the sale, ENWIN has now assumed full management of E.L.K. Energy.
Despite the takeover of management, E.L.K. Energy customers will continue to receive bills under the E.L.K. brand as usual, with no immediate changes to billing structure, rates, or services. Both utility companies will operate independently.
Until the merge is fully complete in 2028, each utility will need to ask the OEB to reset electricity rates based on current operating costs, which could lead to increases.
Garry Rossi, President and CEO of ENWIN, says ENWIN has oversight over E.L.K. moving forward.
"What we're going to be able to do is provide them with a lot of the funding to do the added increases for asset replacements, and improvements, hopefully to improve reliability in the long-term, in addition to providing them resources... technology, things that traditionally they wouldn't have had the funding to be able to invest in."
He says it will take time to fully improve services to current E.L.K. customers.
"We've got a lot of homework to do, we've got a lot of systems to evaluate, we need to prioritize the investments going forward so that it's the biggest bang for our buck, so that the benefit will be seen with the customers. We're still in the process right now where this is just early days, so once we get that information, we're able to digest it and provide a plan."
Rossi says rates will ultimately have to increase for current E.L.K. customers in order for ENWIN to make improvements.
"We're going to need rates to invest so that we can make sure that system is reliable. If not, it's just going to get worse, it's not going to get better, and really that's not the job that we've set out to do... we've set out to make sure the system is reliable, and effective, and efficient."
E.L.K. serves about 13,000 customers across parts of Essex, Lakeshore, and Kingsville.
According to OEB documents, E.L.K. had been losing money year-over-year since 2022, not earning enough to cover its costs.
The sale was estimated at $22.5-million.
-with files from AM800's The Shift with guest host Kristen Siapas