Bill Comparison

In an ongoing effort to provide information to consumers , the Ontario Energy Board (the “Board”) has begun posting distributor-specific estimated residential electricity bills on its Web site.  The estimated bill is based on a residential customer using 1,000 kWh of electricity per month. This information will allow you to see an estimated residential electricity bill for each distributor’s service area as well as the provincial average.

Distribution rates, reflected under the "Delivery" line, vary from utility to utility reflecting the differences in utility-specific costs that are recovered in their rates. These costs relate to elements of their individual circumstances, such as the age of their assets, the number of customers they supply, customer density and the geographic size of their service area.

Estimated Electricity Monthly Bills
The following estimated bills are provided for information purposes only. They are not intended to represent actual bills but rather to provide an estimate for comparison between utility service areas. For more information on your electricity bill, please contact your local distributor.

While the Board has made a concerted effort to reflect the current rate levels, it does not guarantee either the accuracy or the completeness of this data and assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions.

It is the Board’s intention to update these estimated bills every six months.

The estimated monthly bills are calculated using the following data and assumptions:

• the current Board-approved rates for residential year-round consumers (note that the table and chart do not include the residential rates for seasonal consumers for Hydro One Networks, Great Lakes Power and Gravenhurst Hydro);
• based on a monthly consumption of 1,000 kWh; and
• based on a residential consumer who is on the Regulated Price Plan.

Explanation of Terms

Adjustment Factor for Line Loss: When electricity is delivered over a power line, it is normal for a small amount of power to be consumed or lost as heat.  Equipment, such as wires and transformers, consumes power before it gets to your home or business.  The adjustment factor accounts for these losses.

Electricity: This is the cost of the electricity supplied to you during the billing period. The electricity consumed is multiplied by the adjustment factor mentioned above to give the total consumption.

Delivery: These are the costs of delivering electricity from generating stations across the Province to your utility then to your home or business.  This includes the costs to build and maintain the transmission and distribution lines, towers and poles and to operate provincial and local electricity systems.

Components of the Delivery line of your bill include:

• Distribution: To recover of the local distributor’s costs to build and maintain the distribution lines, towers and poles and operate its electricity system. The costs also include the distributor’s administrative expenses, such as meter reading, billing, customer service and maintenance of accounts. A portion of these costs are fixed and do not change from month to month. The rest are variable and increase or decrease depending on the amount of electricity that you use. Fixed and variable distribution rates are approved by the OEB to recover these costs.


• Transmission: This component covers the costs charged by Hydro One Networks to your distributor to build and maintain the transmission lines and to deliver the electricity from the generating stations to your distributor. The rates set to recover the costs of this activity from the consumers are approved by the OEB.

NOTE: The Board sets all distribution and transmission rates following a public review process.

Regulatory: The Regulatory Section reflects the costs of the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), which is responsible for administering the wholesale electricity system and maintaining the reliability of the provincial grid. This section also includes the recovery of costs associated with the Rural or Remote Electricity Rate Protection activity and the administration of the Regulated Price Plan. The rates set to recover the costs of these activities from the consumers are approved by the OEB.

Debt Retirement Charge (DRC): The debt retirement charge pays down the debt of the former Ontario Hydro. It is set at $0.007/kWh by the Ministry of Finance.

You may note on the Table that the DRC charge for a few distributors is lower than $7.00 (1,000 kWh x $0.007). This is because, prior to the provincial restructuring of the electricity sector, some distributors did not rely completely on Ontario Hydro for their supply of electricity. They either generated electricity using their own facilities or purchased electricity from some other supplier. As a result, the Ministry of Finance set DRC rates for these distributors that reflected their circumstances.

Electricity Distributors

(note: Table for Hydro One Networks follows, or click here to jump down)

Graph depicting comparisons (PDF)

• Rates effective as of November 1, 2006
• RPP price: 5.5 cents / kWh (up to 1,000 kWh/month) and 6.4 cents / kWh (for consumption above 1,000 kWh/month)

* The average was calculated as the arithmetic mean of all the bills in the table

Hydro One Networks (legacy & acquired customers)

(note: Table for non-Hydro One Networks above, or click here to jump up)

Graph depicting comparisons (PDF)

• Rates effective as of November 1, 2006
• RPP price: 5.5 cents / kWh (up to 1,000 kWh/month) and 6.4 cents / kWh (for consumption above 1,000 kWh/month)

* The average was calculated as the arithmetic mean of all the bills in the table.

The contents of these materials are for discussion and information purposes and are provided “as is” without representation or warranty of any kind, including without limitation, accuracy, completeness or fitness for any particular purpose. The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) assumes no responsibility to you or any third party for the consequences of any errors or omissions. The OEB may revise these materials at any time in its sole discretion without notice to you. Although every effort will be made by the OEB to update these materials to incorporate any such revisions, it is up to you to ensure you are using the most recent version.