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Ontario suspends electricity time-of-use rates to off-peak rate for 45 days

March 24, 2020
By Kavita Sabharwal-Chomiuk

The Ontario government is suspending time-of-use electricity rates for residents on time-of-use plans, including families, small business and farms, holding electricity prices to the off-peak rate of 10.1 cents-per-kilowatt-hour for a 45-day period. The discount will be applied automatically to electricity bills.
The reduced price will be available 24 hours per day, seven days per week to all time-of-use customers, who make up the majority of electricity customers in the province. The government says that by switching to a fixed off-peak rate, “time-of-use customers will see rate reductions of over 50 per cent compared to on-peak rates”.
The move comes after the Ontario government issued an Emergency Order under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act to apply the off-peak time-of-use electricity rate for time-of-use customers.
Depending on billing cycles, some customers may see these changes on their next electricity bill. Time-of-use customers whose billing cycle ended before their local electricity distributor implemented this change will see the reduced rate as a credit on a future bill.
This change will not impact Ontario Electricity Rebate customers, who will continue to receive a 31.8 per cent rebate on their subtotal bill amounts.
The Ontario Energy Board has extended the winter ban on disconnections to July 31st.
What about those of us on general service (2 tier) billing?
Hello Michael,
The Ontario government has only announced this measure for time-of-use customers at this time. Please check directly with your utility to find out if any changes will be made to 2-tier billing rates.
Thank you!