Changes to your bill
Have you noticed changes to the cost of electricity and the rebate that is applied to your bill? Effective November 1, 2019, the Government of Ontario has made changes to your bill.
Cost of Electricity
The bill relief that lowered time-of-use, tiered electricity prices, and global adjustment since 2017 has been removed from the
Electricity line, so it will now reflect the “true cost” of electricity. This relief has been applied to the new Ontario Electricity Rebate, described below.
The Ontario Energy Board also announced new time-of-use and tiered prices are effective November 1, 2019. Learn more at
www.oeb.ca.
For customers who are paying the spot market price for electricity or who are enrolled with a retailer, the global adjustment modifier of -4.149 cents per kWh has been rolled into the Ontario Electricity Rebate as a percentage of the total bill, not as a specific kWh credit.
New on-bill rebate
The Government of Ontario introduced a new on-bill rebate. The Ontario Electricity Rebate replaces the 8% Provincial Rebate shown on page two of customers’ bills and reduces the amount of the bill by 31.8% before HST. The new rebate includes the bill relief measures that were previously applied to the Electricity line on your bill. This rebate will largely offset the price changes on the Electricity line. It applies to usage on and after November 1, 2019.
Residential, seasonal, and small business customers are automatically eligible for the rebate, as well as any customer who is using less than 250,000 kWh a year. Registered farming businesses and licensed long-term care homes (as long as they don't share an account with a hospital) are also eligible to receive the rebate.
Changes to the Ontario Electricity Rebate for OESP Recipients
In November 2019, electricity bills changed to include the new Ontario Electricity Rebate. The Ontario government has now changed how the rebate will be calculated for customers who are currently receiving an Ontario Electricity Support Program (OESP) credit on their bill.
Ontario Electricity Rebate Calculation November 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020
As shown in the sample bill below, the rebate has been applied to bills after the OESP credit was deducted. This resulted in OESP recipients receiving a lower rebate than other customers who aren’t receiving an OESP credit on their bill. This was an unintended consequence, and the Ontario Government has just made a regulatory change to correct how the rebate is calculated.
Ontario Electricity Rebate Calculation April 1, 2020 onwards
Effective April 1, 2020, the rebate will be calculated on the bill total before the OESP credit is applied, and OESP recipients will receive the full benefit of the rebate.
Ontario Electricity Rebate Refund
To compensate OESP recipients for the period when the lower rebate was applied to their bills, they will automatically receive two refunds on their bills. OESP recipients do not need to do anything to receive these refunds. They will appear under the “Your Adjustments” section of your bill.
First refund on or after March 9, 2020:
Second refund on or after April 1, 2020: