Toronto: The Ontario Energy Board announced new electricity prices October 22 for households and small businesses, effective November 1, under the Regulated Price Plan (RPP). The winter time-of-use (TOU) hours also took effect November 1.
The total bill for a typical residential customer who uses 700 kWh per month will increase by about $1.99 or 1.8%, in line with the rate of inflation the OEB says, as a result of the following changes: With changes in legislation, prices on the Electricity line are increasing so that they once again closely reflect the forecast cost of supply. As well, the increase in prices reflects the fact that the forecast cost of supply has gone up relative to what it was on May 1, 2019 due in part to refurbishment of nuclear facilities and new generation facilities coming online.
The Ontario government has introduced an expanded rebate (the Ontario Electricity Rebate), to provide bill relief that will be applied to customer bills and largely offset the price changes on the Electricity line.
The new TOU prices set by the OEB for November 1, 2019 under the RPP are shown in the table below. The table also shows the hours to which those prices apply:
|
TOU price periods |
May 1, 2019 TOU prices including old bill relief |
November 1, 2019 TOU prices excluding new bill relief |
|
Off-Peak (Weekdays 7 p.m. – 7 a.m., all day weekends and holidays) |
6.5 ¢/kWh |
10.1 ¢/kWh |
|
Mid-Peak (Weekdays 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.) |
9.4 ¢/kWh |
14.4 ¢/kWh |
|
On-Peak (Weekdays 7 a.m. – 11 a.m.and 5 p.m. – 7 p.m.) |
13.4 ¢/kWh |
20.8 ¢/kWh |
The table below shows the new prices for the small number of customers paying tiered prices:
|
Price tiers |
Tiered RPP prices (winter tier thresholds) |
May 1, 2019 tiered prices including old bill relief |
November 1, 2019 tiered prices excluding new bill relief |
|
Tier1 |
Residential – first 1,000kWh/month
Non-residential – first 750kWh/month |
7.7 ¢/kWh |
11.9 ¢/kWh |
|
Tier2 |
Residential – for electricity used above 1,000 kWh/month
Non-residential – for electricity used above 750 kWh/month |
8.9 ¢/kWh |
13.9 ¢/kWh |
The Ontario government also announced October 22 that, to bring more transparency to electricity bills, effective November 1, electricity bills would show the “true cost of power” and would display the new Ontario Electricity Rebate.
"People deserve facts and accountability, especially when it comes to hydro costs," said Minister Rickford. "That's why our government is delivering on its promise to fix the hydro mess and bring more transparent electricity bills to Ontarians. We've taken action to remove hundreds of millions of dollars in costs from the electricity system, and we continue to work to find more savings."
The new Ontario Electricity Rebate would appear as a transparent on-bill line item and replace the former government's Fair Hydro Plan. The average customer will see the electricity line on their bill rise, showing the real cost per kilowatt hour. The new Ontario Electricity Rebate will compensate for that rise, and will be displayed as a separate line item on hydro bills. The average residential bill will rise in line with the rate of inflation.
The change was made partly in response to the Auditor General's special report on the former government's Fair Hydro Plan, which found that "the government created a needlessly complex accounting/financing structure for the electricity rate reduction in order to avoid showing a deficit or an increase in net debt."