No Residential Fixed Price Electricity Contract Prices Available

Regulated Price Plan (RPP) Prices

Residential customers not in fixed price contracts are on the Regulated Price Plan (RPP):

Most Ontario homes now have a Smart Meter and pay Time of Use (TOU) rates:

TOU Prices - Winter - Nov 1, 2023:

Smart Meter
¢ / kWh
On-Peak Mid-Peak Off-Peak
18.2 12.2 8.7


Residential and Small Business customers can submit a request to switch from Time-of-Use to Tiered Pricing for electricity usage. Use the Ontario Energy Board bill calculator to see what your total bill would look like with Time-of-Use and Tiered prices


Regular Meter
¢ / kWh
10.3 up to 750 kWh/month for Residential and 600 kWh/month for non Residential then 12.5

Ultra-Low Overnight (ULO) Nov 1, 2023:

ULO Prices:

Smart Meter
¢ / kWh
On-Peak Mid-Peak Weekend Off-Peak Overnight
28.6 12.2 8.7 2.8

These prices are set for 6 month periods, May 1st and November 1st, but if the utility has to pay more or less for electricity, the difference will be built into the next price change through the RPP Variance Settlement. The RPP includes the Global Adjustment.


Notes on Comparing Electricity Offers

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

What are "green" and "brown" power?

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


What Makes Up an Electricity Bill

There are a variety of fixed and variable components. Check with your utility for exact rates.

Cost Component Example Charge Reason for the Cost
Customer Charge $7 - 20 / month The fixed monthly cost of having basic service from the utility
Distribution Charge 1.4¢ / kWh Construction and maintenance of the local system
Transmission Charge 1.0¢ / kWh Getting the electricity from the generating station to your utility
System Operation and Regulation 0.6¢ / kWh The organizations that oversee electricity (OEB / IESO)
Energy Charge (commodity) 10.5 to 21.7 ¢ / kWh The electricity itself. This chart shows a the range of the RPP - Regulated Price Plan. It includes the Global Adjustment.
Global Adjustment (formerly called Provincial Benefit) ? / kWh If you opt for a contract, this will be an additional line item. If you stay on the regulated price plan it's included in the commodity rate. It covers contracts signed by the government for generation and wind and solar projects.

Deciding on the variable portion

Marketer prices only cover the electricity supply cost. The other charges, Transmission, Debt Retirement, System Operation and Global Adjustment, will be charged by your utility at the regulated rate regardless of who you choose as your electricity supplier.

Comparing with your current electricity bill

It's very difficult for several reasons. If you stay with your utility, you will pay 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. 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. The utility will charge a set rate for a 6 month period, a rate called the Regulated Price Plan RPP. 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.

Low Income Assitance

The Ontario Energy Board offer programs to help low-income customers with their electricity bills. One of them is the Ontario Electricity Support Program (OESP). It provides monthly on-bill credits for low-income customers to reduce their electricity bills:
https://www.oeb.ca/rates-and-your-bill/help-low-income-consumers/ontario-electricity-support-program

www.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,


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