If you live in Toronto, you’ve probably come to expect power outages as part of the norm of city life. But, you’re not being kept in the dark without reason. Approximately 40% of Toronto’s power outages can be linked to aging or defective equipment. Toronto Hydro has claimed that “the city’s electricity grid is the oldest in Ontario and requires more investment than newer municipalities”.
To help fix this aging infrastructure, Toronto Hydro customers will be hit with a rate increase as the Ontario Energy Board has approved Toronto Hydro’s 5-year annual rate increase of approximately 1.7% per year between 2015 to 2019.
Due to the timing of the rate increase approval, the 2016 increase will be doubled to include the 2015 installment. The Ontario Energy Board has also approved more than $2 billion in capital funding to improve reliability, shield from weather extremities and to meet growing demand.
Below are details outlining Toronto Hydro’s Rate Changes (March 1, 2016):
Electricity Rates Time-of-Use (TOU) Rates
* TOU rates work together with a smart meter and customers pay according to the time of day electricity is used.
- 17.5 ¢/kWh Highest Price (On-peak)
- 12.8 ¢/kWh Mid Price (Mid-peak)
- 8.3 ¢/kWh Lowest Price (Off-peak)
Tiered Rates
- 9 ¢/kWh/first 1,000 kWhs used per 30 days
- 11.6 ¢/kWh/remaining kWhs
If you are on Regulated Price Plan Tiered Pricing, your consumption in kWhs is separated into two price tiers under the government’s Regulated Price Plan. Customers will be charged one rate for the first 1,000 kWhs of use per 30 days, while electricity consumed in excess of this threshold will be priced at a different rate. The price threshold (the amount of electricity consumption that is charged at the lower price) will change twice a year for residential consumers. The price threshold will be 1,000 kWhs per 30 days during the winter season (Nov. 1 to Apr. 30) and 600 kWhs during the summer season (May 1 to Oct. 31). This allows consumers to use more electricity at a lower price in the winter.
For commercial customers that have accounts using less than 250,000 kWh a year or for Residential Property Managers, Long Term Care, or Retirement homes contact us to look at options such as the ‘Index Advantage’ program or the Price Optimization Program which can save money on these programs.
https://onterraenergy.com/index-advantage/
https://onterraenergy.com/price-optimization/
For HOEP (Hourly Ontario Electricity Price) customers, this means you’ll likely see an increase to the Global Adjustment.
The Darlington nuclear reactors are all being taken offline the next 4 years for long term refurbishment as well as the Bruce Power reactors in 2020 along with a lot of wind farms coming online, combined with energy conservation and retrofit programs leading to increases in system costs.
Request your free profile and quote from Onterra Energy Advisors today or call us at
1-877-991-5971