Electricity rates

As part of our mandate, we set the rates that your utility charges for the electricity you use in your home or small business. These rates appear on the Electricity line of your bill. We also set the Delivery rates that cover the cost to deliver electricity to most residential and small business customers.

See a description of all of the charges that appear on your electricity bill

Types of electricity rates

For customers that buy electricity from their utility, there are two different types of rates. The Ontario Energy Board sets both:

• Time-of-use - Most residential and small business customers are charged using time-of-use rates, where the rate depends on when you use electricity. Find out more about time-of-use rates and managing your electricity costs.
• Tiered - A very small number of customers are still paying tiered rates, where a customer uses a certain amount of energy each month at a lower rate. Once you exceed that limit, the rate goes up. Read more about tiered rates.

For customers that have signed up for a contract with an energy retailer, the price is set out in the contract. The Ontario Energy Board does not regulate this. Read more about contracts.

How electricity rates are set 

We set electricity rates for residential and small business customers twice each year, on May 1 and November 1. These rates are used by your utility to calculate the Electricity line of your bill.  

The Ontario Energy Board sets these rates based on estimates. The factors that go into this calculation include:

• How and when residential and small business customers use electricity
• How much electricity we expect will be used for the next 12 months
• How much we expect will be paid to generators for producing the electricity used by households and small businesses

We take into consideration how accurate our previous estimates were. For example, if we overestimated the cost of electricity, households and small businesses will have paid more than the actual cost of electricity, and we adjust the next rates accordingly.

Tiered rates

A very small number of Ontario electricity customers are billed using tiered rates. Under tiered rates, a customer can use a certain amount of energy each month at a lower rate. Once that limit is exceeded, the rate goes up. The chart below shows the rates and tiers for each type of customer:

Residential (effective May 1, 2017)

Non-Residential (effective May 1, 2017)

See how rates for tiered customers have changed over time

Electricity prices in energy contracts

Fewer than 1 in 10 customers in Ontario buy their electricity from an electricity retailer. If you’re thinking about signing an energy contract, you will pay the price in the contract, which is not regulated by the Ontario Energy Board.

The Global Adjustment

Most electricity generating companies get a guaranteed price for the electricity that they produce. The Global Adjustment is the difference between that guaranteed price and the money the generators earn in the wholesale marketplace. The Global Adjustment also covers the costs of some conservation programs.  

All electricity consumers have to pay a share of the Global Adjustment. The time-of-use and tiered electricity rates charged by your electricity utility already include an estimate of the Global Adjustment. If you sign up for a contract with an energy retailer, you have to pay your share of the Global Adjustment on top of the contract price. The Global Adjustment will also appear as a separate line on your bill.