We charge customers for the cost of electricity and collect payment on behalf of the organizations that work together to ensure the safe and reliable operation of Ontario’s electricity system.

As a business, the charges on your bill fall under four categories: electricity generation, electricity delivery, regulatory and taxes. Information on niche charges can be found below.


Electricity Costs

Depending on how much electricity your business consumes, you could be paying for electricity via the Regulated Price Plan (RPP). RPP is paid by residential and small business customers, and includes the Global Adjustment charge. For more information on the process to set these prices, go here.

Larger consumers could be paying the Hourly Ontario Energy Price (or Spot price), plus Global Adjustment.  The Spot price is determined by matching supply with Ontario's demand for electricity in the real-time market operated by the Independent Electrical System Operator. In Ontario, all electricity rates reflect the wholesale electricity price in some way. The wholesale price of electricity is dynamic − changing hourly based on demand and the availability of supply. Factors impacting demand include consumer behaviour, weather, time of day, day of the week, as well as economic conditions.

Electricity consumers can choose to buy their electricity from a retailer. If a consumer signs a retail contract, they elect to pay a fixed rate that is independent of the RPP pricing and Spot price. These customers will also pay the Global Adjustment in addition to the rate of their retail contract.

For more information on Global Adjustment, please visit www.ieso.ca. 


Delivery Costs

We deliver electricity to your home or business, but we do not generate it. Our costs capture what it takes for us to deliver electricity to your homes and businesses safely and reliably through the high voltage (transmission) and low voltage (distribution) power lines. The delivery rate is approved by the Ontario Energy Board, and contains fixed and variable charges. This category can be broken down into four components: system maintenance, storm restoration, operations and new connections.

Delivery charges also vary according to customer density and location, or Urban vs non-Urban.

How delivery charges are calculated depend on whether you are an energy-billed or demand-billed.


Delivery for Energy-Billed

If your service has an average monthly peak demand of less than 50kW, then the variable component of your delivery is calculated based on the total amount of electricity you used (kWh) during the billing period.

 

Delivery for Demand-Billed

If your service has an average monthly peak demand of greater than, or equal to, 50 kW, then the variable component of your delivery is based on the peak demand, or highest hour of usage over the billing period.

For demand-billed consumers with a Power Factor of less than 90%, 90% of the kVA will be used for the distribution volumetric charges. Power Factor is the ratio of the amount of energy used to do real work (real power, or kW) and the amount of total energy used to do that work (kVA). If your equipment draws too much reactive power, measured in kilovolt-amperes-reactive (kVAR), it can't perform work as efficiently and limits the capacity of our lines to deliver real power and quality voltage to your facility. Poor power factor at your site can cause voltage fluctuations and power quality issues for neighbouring facilities, which negatively affects their equipment. It also limits the capacity of our lines to deliver energy to you and to our other customers. To counteract these effects we need to install capacitors on our system to use our lines efficiently and to maintain power quality for all customers on the line. By billing more for poor power factor, we are able to recover the costs of providing the reactive power to you.

 

Delivery for Interval-Billed

An interval meter is a meter that measures and records the electricity you use on a time interval basis e.g. hourly. For consumers with an interval meter, a portion of the Delivery charge is based on the highest peak demand from 7am to 7pm on Business Days.


Regulatory Costs

Regulatory charges are set by the Ontario Energy Board. These charges include the cost of services required to operate the electricity system and run the wholesale market. The majority of these charges are variable and increase or decrease depending on the amount of your adjusted usage.


Taxes

Charges on your electricity bill are subject to the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST). The HST portion of Ontarians' hydro bills fall under the authority of the federal government. However, the tax assessment on your bill could include a 19.3 per cent rebate if your service is less than 50kW or less than 250,000 kWh consumed annually. On November 1, 2019, the Government of Ontario introduced the Ontario Electricity Rebate, which is a rebate on electricity costs for residential, farm and many small business customers. Large services that are classified as Farm or Multi-Unit residential also qualify for the rebate, but would have to notify Hydro One of their eligibility via the Large Volume Farm form or Multi-Unit Residential form, found here. Some First Nations and Métis communities qualify for a tax exemption. Click here to find out if you qualify.

Niche Charges

Street Lights

This service type is applicable to customers who have street lights owned by or operated for a road authority and/or municipal corporation. The energy consumption for street lights is estimated based on our profile for street lighting load, which provides the amount of time each month that the street lights are operating.


SENTINEL LIGHTS

Some of our customers are charged for the operation and maintenance of our Sentinel Light Rental Program. The supply, operation, and service of our customers’ sentinel lights is only available to those already enrolled in the program.


Unmetered Scattered Loads

The Unmetered Scattered Load service type applies to an account taking electricity at 750 volts or less whose average monthly demand is less than, or is forecast to be less than, 50 kW and the consumption is unmetered.