Hydro clients allowed to opt out of time-of-use pricing
Ontario electricity ratepayers can choose to bolt from time-of-use pricing after Halloween.
While the Progressive Conservatives are freezing electricity prices round the clock at 12.8 cents per kilowatt hour through Oct. 31, Energy Minister Greg Rickford said consumers will then be able to select the billing plan that works best for them.
With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing more people to work from home, Rickford on Monday moved to eliminate time-of-use (TOU) pricing for the next five months.
At the start of the outbreak, he cut peak pricing to 10.1 cents per kilowatt hour with rates higher at other times of day, which saved the average household around $20 a month through May.
“Homeowners will notice very little difference from one bill to the next,” the minister said of the immediate change to one fixed pricing.
“The new COVID-19 recovery rate will provide stability for Ontario electricity consumers, while we work to reopen our province and restart our economy,” he said from Kenora.
“We recognize that businesses and families are living with a great deal of uncertainty, and they need to know what they can expect when they open their electricity bills every month.”
Rickford said that starting Nov.1, hydro ratepayers will be able to either to return to time-of-use pricing or opt for a new tiered plan that “will provide a set rate for electricity up to a certain level of consumption.”
The minister noted that Queen’s Park is already subsidizing residential, farm and small business electricity bills by 31.8 per cent, which will cost the treasury $5.6 billion this year. But NDP MPP Peter Tabuns (Toronto Danforth) said the Fordgovernment has still failed to deliver on its 2018 campaign pledge to lower rates.
“Ford promised a 12 per cent drop in electricity bills, and instead he’s only hiked them higher and higher,” said Tabuns, noting the rates have gone up two per cent since the Tories took over from Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals.
“Every day, families are paying for his failure to fix the broken, privatized system. The government should be doing more to lower electricity bills, not making them more expensive in the middle of a pandemic,” he said.
Also Monday, Rickford said the Ontario Energy Board’s “winter disconnection ban” was being extended until July 31, meaning no one is can be cut off from their electricity or natural gas.