TORONTO — Instead of expiring on Thursday, Ontario's emergency electricity rate reduction will be extended for an additional 24 days to help customers cope during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It means residential, farm and small business customers will continue to be billed at the lowest price – the off-peak price – 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until May 31.
The rate reduction took effect on March 24 and was set to expire on May 7.
The current off-peak Time of Use electricity rate is 10.1 cents per kilowatt hour.
In announcing the extension of rate relief, Premier Doug Ford said "this will leave more money in people's pockets until businesses can start to reopen and people can get back to work."
The government has said off-peak pricing provides customers with rate reductions of more than 50 per cent compared with on-peak rates.
Last month, the Ontario Energy Board said it would leave the winter time-of-use periods in place indefinitely beyond May 1, the date that summer time-of-use periods normally take effect.
