The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) announced new electricity prices for households and small businesses, effective January 1, 2021, under the Regulated Price Plan (RPP). The OEB last set RPP prices for November 1, 2020.
The RPP prices have been lowered to reflect a significant change in the cost of supplying electricity to RPP customers. Specifically, a portion of renewable energy contract costs currently funded by electricity ratepayers will now be funded by the Ontario Government. This initiative was announced as part of the 2020 Ontario Budget, and a new regulation has been
made to support the initiative.
Typical residential customer bills to be held stable
The Government is also decreasing the Ontario Electricity Rebate (OER) from 33.2% to 21.2% effective January 1, 2021. The Government’s intention is that, for residential and small business customers, the reduction in the electricity price will be offset by the change in the OER. The OER is a total pre-tax credit that appears at the bottom of electricity bills. As a result of lower RPP prices and the reduced OER, typical residential customer bills will be held stable. The typical residential RPP customer uses 700kWh of electricity per month.
New RPP prices starting January 1, 2021
The new RPP Time-of-Use (TOU) prices set by the OEB for January 1, 2021 are shown in the table below. The table also shows the hours to which those prices apply:
| Winter TOU Price Periods | January 1, 2021 TOU Prices |
|---|---|
| Off-Peak (Weekdays 7 p.m. – 7 a.m., all day weekends and holidays) | 8.5¢/kWh |
| Mid-Peak (Weekdays 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.) | 11.9¢/kWh |
| On-Peak (Weekdays 7 a.m. – 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. – 7 p.m.) | 17.6¢/kWh |
The table below shows the new RPP prices for customers paying Tiered prices:
| Winter Tier Thresholds | January 1, 2021 Tiered Prices | |
|---|---|---|
Tier 1 | Residential – first 1,000 kWh/month Non-residential – first 750 kWh/month | 10.1¢/kWh |
| Tier 2 | Residential – for electricity used above 1,000 kWh/month Non-residential – for electricity used above 750 kWh/month | 11.8¢/kWh |
The winter TOU price periods and the winter tier threshold for residential customers that took effect on November 1, 2020 are not changing on January 1, 2021.