Ontario Energy Board sets new electricity prices for households and small businesses

The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) announced today new electricity prices for households and small businesses, effective November 1, under the Regulated Price Plan (RPP). The winter time-of-use (TOU) hours will also take 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%, which is in line with the rate of inflation, 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) providing bill relief that will be applied to customer bills, largely offsetting 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
Tier 1

Residential – first 1,000 kWh/month

 

Non-residential – first 750 kWh/month

7.7 ¢/kWh 11.9 ¢/kWh
Tier 2

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 total bill impact for individual customers across the province may vary depending on the customer’s electricity usage and the utility that serves them.

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