OEB announces decrease to electricity rates
For residential and small business customers that buy their electricity from their utility, the OEB has set new lower Regulated Price Plan (RPP) electricity prices that build on the reduction in RPP prices that came into effect on May 1. With the new RPP prices that will start to apply on July 1, the total bill for the proxy customer described under the Fair Hydro Act, 2017 will be about $121. That is about $41 or 25% lower than it would have been without the following mitigation:
- the planned refinancing of a portion of the costs of the Global Adjustment (GA), as reflected in the new RPP prices;
- the 8% rebate, equivalent to the provincial portion of the HST, that has been in place since January 1, 2017;
- the impact of removing most of the cost of the Rural and Remote Rate Protection program from electricity bills, which will now be paid for from provincial revenues; and
- the impact of removing the cost of the Ontario Electricity Support Program (OESP) from electricity bills. The OESP will continue to be available to help eligible low-income customers reduce their electricity bills, and will also be paid for from provincial revenues.
For other customers that are eligible for electricity bill reductions under the Fair Hydro Act, 2017, the OEB has set a credit that will reduce their GA charges. These include customers that are eligible for the RPP but have chosen a contract with an energy retailer or market-based pricing. The credit is designed to provide these customers with a level of benefit that corresponds with the benefit being provided to the proxy customer through the lower RPP prices announced today.
The table below shows two sets of prices: what time-of-use (TOU) prices would otherwise have been for RPP customers during the 2017 summer period (May 1, 2017 to October 31, 2017); and the lower TOU prices now set by the OEB to start on July 1, 2017.
| TOU price periods |
TOU prices that would have been in effect during the 2017 summer period without any Fair Hydro Act, 2017 reductions |
TOU prices reflecting the Fair Hydro Act, 2017 reductions effective July 1, 2017 |
| Off-Peak |
9.1 ¢/kWh |
6.5 ¢/kWh |
| Mid-Peak |
13.3 ¢/kWh |
9.5 ¢/kWh |
| On-Peak |
18.5 ¢/kWh |
13.2 ¢/kWh |
The table below shows the same sets of prices for RPP customers who pay tiered prices.
| Price tiers |
Tiered prices that would have been in effect during the 2017 summer period without any Fair Hydro Act, 2017 reductions |
Tiered prices reflecting the Fair Hydro Act, 2017 reductions effective July 1, 2017 |
| Tier 1 |
10.7 ¢/kWh |
7.7 ¢/kWh |
| Tier 2 |
12.5 ¢/kWh |
9.0 ¢/kWh |
The GA credit that applies to other eligible customers has been set by the OEB at $32.90/MWh (or about 3.3¢/kWh).
The new RPP prices and the GA credit will be in effect until April 30, 2018. At that time, the OEB will reset RPP prices and the GA credit in a way that holds increases to the rate of inflation in accordance with legislation.