THUNDER BAY — Synergy North is providing information to its customers to help them decide if they should stick with time-of-use electricity (TOU) pricing or switch to tiered pricing.
The utility says customers can plug their usage history into the Ontario Energy Board's bill calculator to determine which pricing method is more advantageous to them.
The province recently decided to give residential and small business customers the option of choosing the pricing plan that suits them better.
Currently, most residential and small business clients under the Ontario Energy Board's regulated price plan use TOU pricing, meaning how much they pay for electricity depends on when they use it.
Under TOU, consumers pay higher prices when electricity is more expensive to produce, and lower prices when it is less expensive. This gives them the opportunity to lower their costs by shifting usage to less costly times of the day.
Tiered pricing is for residential and small business customers who prefer to pay a set rate for electricity up to a certain level of consumption.
The rate goes up for all additional electricity used when consumption exceeds the threshold.
Last week the OEB announced a new rate schedule that takes effect Nov. 1, in conjunction with the termination of fixed pricing that was in place since late March when the COVID-19 pandemic was declared.
Time-of-Use Pricing Plan:
- Price per kWh off-peak - 10.5¢
- mid-peak - 15¢
- on-peak - 21.7¢
Tiered Pricing Plan:
- Residential price per kWh For the first 1000 kWh of electricity consumption per month -12.6¢
- For electricity consumption over 1000 kWh per month - 14.6¢
- Non-Residential Price per kWh For the first 750 kWh of electricity consumption per month - 12.6¢
- For electricity consumption over 750 kWh per month - 14.6¢
There are no restrictions as to when customers must choose their pricing plan.
Those who wish to stay with TOU will continue to be billed that way.
Customers who want to switch to tiered pricing must advise Synergy North by completing a form which is available online at synergynorth.ca, or by logging into their myENERGY account.
In a statement Monday, Synergy North said it has gathered a comparison of each customer's past usage with the current rates, and this is available on the MyENERGY portal for those who have registered on the portal.
Resources and tools are available to all customers at synergynorth.ca/residential/billing/yourchoice.
Information is also available from Customer Service at 1-833-428-1451 or by email at [email protected].
