Alayne McGregor
Hydro Ottawa has switched all its customers back to time-of-use payments this month, meaning that you pay less for electricity on evenings and weekends, and more at peak hours.
For most of 2020, everyone had been charged a tiered rate, which only varied depending on the total amount of electricity you used each month. You now have the option of returning to that rate, which might be in your interest if you’re not a heavy electricity user.
I did the calculations from my 2020 electricity bills and found that I saved several dollars a month with tiered rates. In only one month in which I used 577kWh, the most electricity that year, were the time- of-use rates cheaper. Other friends who have done the calculations have had similar results. You may also want to choose tiered if you’re working at home, or for convenience.
For the first 1,000kWh per month in winter and the first 600kWh in summer, the tiered rates are 12.6 cents per kWh. After that, it increases to 14.6 cents/kWh. The time-of-day rates are 10.5 cents/kWh off-peak, 15.0 mid-peak and 21.7 on-peak.
The Ontario Energy Board has an online calculator at https://www.oeb.ca/rates-and-your-bill/bill-calculator to simplify the process.
You sit down with your previous hydro bills and enter your actual electricity consumption to see which rate structure would give you the lowest bills.
Hydro Ottawa will switch you from time-of-use to tiered (or vice-versa) on request. The change will come into effect with your next billing cycle, not immediately. You can request the change by phone, email, postal mail, or on the Hydro Ottawa website (search for rate selection).
Worried that this will increase the demand for electricity? The Independent Electricity System Operators (ieso.ca) have calculated that the initial COVID-19 lockdown this spring reduced Ontario electricity demand by 10 to 12 percent because of lower business demand. On the other hand, residences were using 14 percent more electricity between 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.