Description: Ontario Hydro consumers can purchase fixed rate electricity contracts to protect themselves from rising electricity costs.
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Ford's conservative government keeps rates virtually unchanged in May. There was just a small increase as the on-peak rate changed from 13.2 cents per kWh to 13.4 cents per kWh. All other rates remained the same.
Electricity costs increased another 4% on May 1, 2016. The government blames the latest increase on the recent mild winter which resulted in lower electricity consumption. After raising hydro rates every year for the past 8 years, resulting in a cumulative increase of 140%, the fact that they even feel the need to offer an excuse for this particular rate increase is laughable.
To add insult to injury, previous increases tended to be most concentrated within the on-peak and mid-peak periods. This allowed the government to claim that consumers could help compensate by shifting their consumption to off-peak hours. With the latest rate hikes, the highest percentage of increases went toward off-peak rates, which increased 4.82%, while mid-peak and on-peak rates climbed 3.12% and 2.86%, respectively.