Residential Electricity Prices

The following are fixed price electricity contracts available in your area.

Supplier 1 Yr. Fixed 2 Yr. Fixed 3 Yr. Fixed 4 Yr. Fixed 5 Yr. Fixed Features Signup MyRate Energy 5.39 5.69 5.89 6.69 7.29 Full requirements price Direct Energy -- -- 6.99 -- 7.99 100 % Green Power Superior Energy 5.5 -- 6.0 -- -- See notes below

By default, the suppliers are sorted by the number of customers signed on this site. To find utility rates, scroll down to the heading, “Regulated Rates”.

Disclaimer: Energyshop researches prices and provides them on a best efforts basis and is not responsible for discrepancies.

• 6.5¢/kWh (1,000 kWh/month winter and 600 kWh/mo summer), and 7.5¢ for the rest, as of May 1st, 2010.
• These prices are set until Nov. 1st, 2010, but are not fixed prices. If the utility has to pay more for electricity, the deficit will be built into the next price change.
• When you exit the RPP, there are 2 adjustments.
  • You will either receive a credit or be asked to pay into a variance account. Check here.
  • The Provincial Benefit line will be added to your bill. This may be a rebate or a surcharge, depending on the spot market price. It has been a surcharge for the last year.

Notes on Comparing Electricity Offers

Make sure you read the contracts, in particular the Price clause. There are two types of offers:

• Full requirements, with no additional costs. This includes Canada Energy and Direct Energy and now MyRate.
• Contracts with Pool Balancing Adjustment. Superior, Planet and Just Energy have this clause. This is to make up any difference in amount or time of use between historical use and use during the contract period. The suppliers group customers together into pools and purchase electricity contracts to match the historical use of that group. If the purchase does not match actual use, an adjustment is made. The maximum adjustment is usually 1 cent/kWh.

What are "green" and "brown" power?

The term "green power" refers to electricity created from renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, geothermal, some hydropower, and biomass. "Brown power" refers to power generated using traditional fossil fuels and nuclear energy.

• Save with our long distance telephone plan cost comparisons.
• Save money and energy with a Home Energy Evaluation
• Questions? Check out our FAQs.
• What are the Ontario spot rates? Spot market rate
• Not ready to buy? Register to be kept up to date.

What Makes Up an Electricity Bill

Deciding on that deregulated portion

Marketer prices only cover the electricity supply cost. The other charges, Transmission, Debt Retirement and System Operation charges, will be charged by your utility at the regulated rate regardless of who you choose as your electricity supplier. The portion of your bill over which you have choice is about 60% of the total charge per kilowatt hour. That 60% goes to whomever you choose to supply your electricity. Remember this split when comparing costs. When a promotional message claims a 10% saving, it is referring to 10% of the 60% over which you have choice.

Comparing with your current electricity bill

It's very difficult for several reasons. If you stay with your utility, you will pay, per kWh, the average spot market price over the first year, based on the Net System Load Shape (NSLS) for your utility. The NSLS is the profile (hourly use through the year) of the total of all electricity users in your utility purchasing from the utility, who do not have an interval meter. The spot market changes every hour. That has to be compared to a fixed rate, fixed term contract.

Comparing and deciding among the various offers

You have 2 fundamental choices; to stay with the utility and pay a variable rate, or go with a deregulated energy marketer and choose between their array of choices. You'll see fixed or variable contracts, terms between 1 and 5 years and possibly other incentives such as air miles or a free month of electricity. This decision depends on your budget, and whether you expect electricity prices to go up or down.

Regulated rates are not fixed rates, nor can they be

In Ontario, the Ontario Energy Board regulates utility rates. Utilities can't offer fixed contracts; only marketers can. If you are a designated consumer, which includes homeowners, the utility will charge you a set rate for a period of time. This is called the Regulated Price Plan RPP (currently for 1 year, but changing to 6 months on May 1/06). As a residential consumer you can opt out of the RPP and pay the monthly spot price instead. Or you can sign a longer term contract with a marketer. The reason you would sign a contract would be to avoid regulated rate changes in the future.

Regulated Price Plan (RPP) Settlement

If you sign an electricity contract in Ontario you will be subject to RPP Settlement. The regulated price plan, which you were on, is mean to smooth out the volatile market rates by setting the price for 6 months. However, if market prices are higher (or lower) than the RPP rate a variance account accumulates. When you leave the RPP for a contract, you will be charge for, or credited with, your portion of that account.

Find out the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions electricity use causes.

If you've seen a price from a marketer that is different from the list above, and would like to report the price to Energyshop.com so others can make an informed purchasing decision, enter it below. All comments are welcome.

Energyshop.com provides unbiased natural gas price and electricity cost comparisons. This is valuable information and education for home and commercial, house and business. It's insurance against paying too much on current utility rates. We have historical data, supplier information, home heating calculations, natural gas price charts, maps to help you find your utility area, links to solar energy, green power and wind power sites.

There are many suppliers with consumer energy rates, natural gas prices and electricity costs in Canada including Direct Energy, Just Energy, OESC (Ontario Energy Savings Corp), AESC, Superior (SEM), Epcor, Enmax, Constellation NewEnergy (CNE), CEG, BCESC, Universal Energy and RiteRate, Transalta. This information on electricity suppliers and open market rates is valid for Ontario, Alberta, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and BC (British Columbia). It covers gas distributed by Enbridge, Union, Kitchener utilities, Kingston, ATCO, Direct Energy Regulated Services, Teresen, Epcor, ENMAX, Altagas and GazMet. Canadian natural gas prices are available for deregulated provinces.

Some US states are deregulated and several have quite active markets. Georgia, Texas, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio are active in 2007 and have the longest history. The most active marketers in Georgia are MX Energy, Georgia Natural Gas, Coweta-Fayette EMC, Gas South, GasKey, Infinite Energy, SCANA, Vectren and Walton EMC.

This price comparison search helps you find the cheapest electricity and cheapest natural gas among Canadian energy companies. While energy price information does not have the sex appeal of TV and electronics, it actually saves you much more money in your personal budget. If you sign a contract for 1 cent less per m³ (which is 27 cents/GJ), you will save about $30 per year. The difference between the highest and lowest price in Ontario is usually 5 cents, so signing with the lowest cost provider will save you $150 per year. Think about this when the door to door marketers and telemarketers talk to you.

We also provide educational information and links on such issues as Nox and Sox and CO2 reduction (Nitrous Oxide and Sulphur Dioxide and Carbon Dioxide). We are a consumer report on the energy industry. Real estate professionals like the information we provide on utility bills, cost history, on heating system conversion costs, and energy price forecasts to help their clients manage expenses and cost of living.

Links to the Hourly Ontario Energy Price HOEP are also available to guage the Ontario power industry. The HOEP is also referred to as the spot market for electricity, and the open market rate. We are working on links to the Alberta electricity power pool

Business customers have many more options for buying natural gas and electricity. They can buy full requirements gas contracts with all of the delivery and compressor fuel charges added, or they can buy naked price contracts based on NYMEX quotes, and pay all of the other charges quoted separately. Electricity can be either a fixed price for every kWh used regardless of timing, or a business can buy a block of electricity to best match their time of use. Business customers can buy from companies such as Coral (Shell Trading), Sempra, CNE, Direct Energy,