Enbridge is required to abandon your gas connection at no cost to you.
Getting off of fossil fuel and electrifying your home is an excellent way to fight climate change and save you some money. People in Guelph that have electrified their home have told us that they’ve had some challenges when asking Enbridge to cancel their account, remove the meter and disconnect the gas pipes at the street. (Technically Enbridge refers to this as gas connection abandonment.) As a result, we’ve pulled together information from multiple sources that should make this process easier for you.
Do this first before you remove the last gas burning appliance in your home
1 – Cancel your Automatic Payment Plan (do not cancel your account… yet)
If you have a billing plan that automatically takes your payments from your bank account, cancel this before you have completed your decarbonization (electrification) plan. Continue to pay your bill either by a cheque or through e-transfer until you have completed decarbonization and cancelled the account. This will prevent Enbridge from continuing to withdraw money from your account if you have a dispute in the future.
This change can be done online. If you are unable to do this then call Enbridge to change your billing preference. Always be polite and patient when dealing with Enbridge staff. Note that you are not required to provide a reason why you are changing your billing preference.
2 -Decarbonize your Home
Decarbonize your home through energy efficiency, conservation, switching to a heat pump, solar and possibly even battery storage to end the burning fossil fuel.
3 – Cancel your Enbridge account
- Once you no longer need a gas connection cancel your account online.
- Avoid calling customer service.
Within a few weeks you may receive mail from Enbridge addressed to: ‘Resident of ‘your address’. They are assuming that a new occupant lives in your home and they have no record of a request for a new Enbridge account. Disregard and please recycle this notice.
4 – Once you you received your final bill and the service is cancelled
Pay the bill by cheque or e-transfer and ensure it has been withdrawn from your bank account before proceeding.
This approach should minimize any future billing dispute with Enbridge:
5 – Call and ask to have your meter and gas service abandoned from your address
Always be polite and patient when dealing with Enbridge staff. Call and ask to have your meter and gas service abandoned from your address.
Note: The term “abandoned” is used by Enbridge when a gas meter and service needs to be removed. It most often occurs when a home is being demolished in order for new development to take place. Usually a new home is built and a new gas line and meter is installed at a later date. But you want it abandoned permanently.
Some Enbridge staff appear to genuinely be unaware that they have to abide by a customer’s request to abandon the service. This entails removing the gas meter and disconnecting the service to your home from the mainline on the street.
They will ask you why you want to do this and a simple response is that you “no longer want to burn fossil fuel in your home.”
You may be told that this will cost you a lot of money and that it will completely disrupt your landscaping.This is not true.
If they attempt to continue with this approach, then politely and clearly state the following:
The Ontario Energy Board (OEB, the regulator of energy utilities in Ontario) requires that, at no cost to the customer, Enbridge must comply with a request to abandon a gas service.
If they are still reluctant then politely request to speak with a manager. No doubt that you will have to go through the process again. Restate the OEB statement above if necessary.
______________________________
Once Your Gas Line Abandonment Request is in the system
Preparation for abandonment:
- From the time they have confirmed your abandonment request it should take between 6 – 10 weeks for them to come to your home to complete the work.
- During that time you may get more than one call from Enbridge about the process that will include one of their staff coming to your home to conduct “locates”. This is required for them to know where your underground pipes are and where they connect to the mainline near the street. Once completed you will notice yellow paint and yellow flags on your property that show the location of the gas pipe.
- During these calls Enbridge staff may once again attempt to convince you not to go ahead with your abandonment – if they do restate the OEB statement above.
______________________________
What does abandonment look like?
- This process will remove the gas meter from your wall but it will leave about 60 cm (2 feet) of short pieces of pipe attached to your home. You are responsible for removing these pipes and sealing the hole that remains. If you don’t seal it you will be allowing cold air into the house.
- Enbridge will also remove the pipe that goes from your meter and into the ground for about a meter (3 feet) and it will no longer be visible from the surface.
- Then they will disconnect your pipe from the mainline out at the road. This may be in front of your home or across the street. A very large truck(s) is used for this.
- Note that the majority of the pipe on your property will remain in the ground and will no longer have any gas in it. The process for abandonment is very regulated to ensure that this occurs..
Enjoy your fossil fuel home!
