Winter hydro rates set to kick in along with a new choice for how your bill gets calculated

As we get ready to change our clocks back on Sunday, the hydro companies are also readying to do the same.

Sunday marks the end of Ontario's pandemic relief rates and the start of the Winter power clock which essentially swaps the mid-peak and on-peak times to reflect seasonal consumption changes like the switch from running the air conditioner in the afternoon to running the furnace in the morning and evenings.

As of November 1, 2020, this is what you can expect to pay based on time-of-use billing:

• Off-Peak | 10.5 ¢/kWh – Weekdays 7:00 pm to 7:00 am and All Day on Weekends & Holidays
• Mid-Peak | 15.0 ¢/kWh –  Weekdays 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
• On-Peak | 21.7 ¢/kWh – Weekdays 7:00 am – 11:00 am  and 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

But hydro customers are being given a new choice – to change the way your bill is calculated.

You can choose to stick with the traditional time-of-use rate or new tiered rates.

“Where they're charged a certain amount on their first level – or tier – of usage and then charged a secondary amount on the usage or electricity they consume over and above that first tier amount,” said Waterloo North Hydro Energy Conservation & Corporate Communications Manager, Jeff Quint.

For residential customers, tiered billing would see you paying a flat rate of 12.6 ¢/kWh for your first 1,000 kWh/month and then the rate would rise to 14.6 ¢/kWh for everything after that.

Simply, the traditional off-peak times would continue to offer the most bang-for-your-buck but with a tiered model, your rates would always stay below mid-peak levels and come nowhere near on-peak ones.

Quint said two of the main questions customers are asking right now is how they're supposed to know which one is right for them, and can they switch back.

“The Ontario Energy Board has a bill calculator out there that allows customers to do very simply – through a quick comparison or a detailed comparison which is entering all their bills and their time-of-use periods and consumption – to find out which rate would be best for them based on their historical energy usage.”

He said the final decision can very much vary from person to person and family to family.

“It is specific to each customer depending on what their lifestyle is – are they working from home, are they retired, how many children they have, what kind of equipment they have,” said Quint. “I would recommend customers to take a little bit of an analysis and through the calculator on the Ontario Energy Board's website it can be done very simply by just entering the last bill or you can go through the last 12 months to make a comparison.”

And as far as being locked into your choice – no, you can reassess and change your mind either through the Winter or as tier prices change to reflect Summer rates.

“At this point in time there are no requirements to remain on a certain rate for a certain period of time,” said Quint. “Customers can flip back and forth just bearing in mind that it takes a little bit of time before the change can happen based on billing cycles and things like that.”