People in Ontario can't afford light and heat

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Aleks

I don't think it's much worse than here. I was just venting to my family about my enmax bill today. Usage, that's hardly a factor, it's the charges that are absurd! My gas usage last month was around $5.75 actual. My gas portion of the bill was $53, 10% usage, 90% fees and charges! My electric was $18 usage actual, and $71 after fees and riders. It's absolutely insane that this happens. My parents on the island $14 gas. No delivery. No admin fees, no rate riders, no bulk charges, nothing.

There's no incentive to cut back your usage. You could run all your appliances all day every day, and only be charged a couple bucks more.

I hate energy companies.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Well, it took longer than hoped, but we're one step closer to the eastern bastards freezing in the dark.

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by Aleks

I don't think it's much worse than here. I was just venting to my family about my enmax bill today. Usage, that's hardly a factor, it's the charges that are absurd! My gas usage last month was around $5.75 actual. My gas portion of the bill was $53, 10% usage, 90% fees and charges! My electric was $18 usage actual, and $71 after fees and riders. It's absolutely insane that this happens. My parents on the island $14 gas. No delivery. No admin fees, no rate riders, no bulk charges, nothing.

Same here. My electricity usage is approximately 20% of my total cost. It really makes no difference how much I use (even if it's 0 kwh).

[FlamesAddiction]

In Ontario, there are also additional charges right now to pay for upgrades and refurbishment at many of the plants.

Incidentally, I worked as a contractor at OPG on some refurbishment projects for a while and you will never meet a more lazy and disorganized group of highly paid workers. There were some days where we literally got no work done because they wouldn't be ready for us, but we would still get paid. We would be ready to go, but we would have to wait for someone from OPG to come and press a button before we could start (it had to be someone in the union). They also get insane amounts of holiday time and "stress days". They are even allowed to go for a walk for an hour each day to unwind (paid of course). There were so many other times where we would be stuck waiting for other similar reasons. A 3 month job took 2 years.

[Alpaca]

The distribution charges for a Farm electrical Service in the area Fortis covers is $2.536 per day, that is $76.08 per 30 day billing period. Doesn't matter what the electricity consumption, the distribution charge is $76.08 per 30 day billing period.

[Alpaca]

Our Enmax electrical bill for a Okotoks area Farm Service Apr.27 to May 25 was $126.59. Made up of energy charge for 448 kWh of $31.32, billing period was 29 days so Distribution charge of $73.54, and Transmission charge of $15.45.
I don't agree that we have cheap electricity my energy rate may be 6.99 cents per kWh but on this bill our electricity costs us ($126.59 divided by 448 kWh) $0.28256 per kWh. To me that is how you compare electricity cost Cents/kWh to your door.

[para transit fellow]

I happened to be looking at the bill for work for recent bill (may 6 - june 5):
$73.74 for 1055 kWh
$12.31 local access fees
$6.50 admin
$3.53 credit from balancing pool
$100.15 for fortis Delivery charges

There are 22 different delivery charge items to examine in the details

we are in the Airdrie Industrial park (north east Airdrie)

[Aleks]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

There's no incentive to cut back your usage. You could run all your appliances all day every day, and only be charged a couple bucks more.

I hate energy companies.

I had started changing all of my bulbs to LED, and realized I'm not actually turning the screws to them, only myself. Now, I'm happy to not have to change my halogen floods so often, but you're right, there's no incentive whatsoever. Water is a bit on the ridiculous side as well, but that's just a straight charge for consumption so its easy to manipulate. I'm just frustrated, and unsure how to affect any change on this clear exploitation

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Aleks

I had started changing all of my bulbs to LED, and realized I'm not actually turning the screws to them, only myself. Now, I'm happy to not have to change my halogen floods so often, but you're right, there's no incentive whatsoever. Water is a bit on the ridiculous side as well, but that's just a straight charge for consumption so its easy to manipulate. I'm just frustrated, and unsure how to affect any change on this clear exploitation

Sounds like you guys can't wait for a carbon tax so you can be motivated to save power.

[bigtmac19]

Originally Posted by calgaryblood

Maybe it's just me but isn't that a reasonable bill even for Alberta? It's about $112 for electricity. Which might be a little high but definetely not "choose between food and electricity" high.

Reasonable in context of someone working. What about seniors, fixed incomes, one income homes, etc.? When there is no end in sight (here in Ontario), with respect to hydro rates and constant price increases, it's completely understandable that people are choosing between hydro and groceries.

My rates went up May 1. Ontario Hydro actually had the balls to say publicly that they had to raise rates because the consumer had been doing what we were told with respect to saving energy and we had conserved too much, so now they had to make up the shortfall. I could not believe what I was hearing.

It seems it doesn't matter what the consumer does, we are taking it up the ***.

[Cheese]

Your Electricity Charges for Apr 11, 2016 to Jun 09, 2016 (2 months)
Electricity (Waterloo, Ontario)
Off Peak 452.37 kWh x $0.083
$37.55
Off Peak 707.64 kWh x $0.087
$61.56
Mid Peak 150.42 kWh x $0.128
$19.25
Mid Peak 148.25 kWh x $0.132
$19.57
On Peak 134.54 kWh x $0.175
$23.54
On Peak 169.14 kWh x $0.18
$30.45
Delivery
$93.58
Regulatory Charges
$11.45
Debt Retirement Charge
Debt Retirement Charge Exemption saved you $12.34 *1
Total Electricity Charges
$296.95

WATERLOO, ON
Bill Issue Date:
Jun 23, 2016
HST $38.60

Total Amount Due Jul 15, 2016
$335.55 (This works out to ~$167 month)

My measured consumption was 1762kWh and as mentioned before I am in a 2500ft2 side split that is 50 years old.

$143.63 of my bill is taxes and delivery regulatory charges

Usage chart

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4L...ew?usp=sharing

GLOSSARY OF TERMSELECTRICITY:
This is the cost of the electricity supplied to you during this billing period and is
the part of the bill that is subject to competition.
DELIVERY:
These are the costs of delivering electricity from generating stations across the Province
to Waterloo North Hydro Inc. then to your home or business. This includes the costs to build and
maintain the transmission and distribution lines, towers and poles and operate provincial and local
electricity systems. A portion of these charges 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.
The delivery charge also includes costs relating to electricity lost through distributing
electricity to your home or business.* Waterloo North Hydro Inc. collects this money and pays this
amount directly to our suppliers.
*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.
REGULATORY CHARGES:
Regulatory charges are the costs of administering the wholesale electricity
system and maintaining the reliability of the provincial grid and include the costs associated with
funding Ministry of Energy conservation and renewable energy programs.
DEBT RETIREMENT CHARGE:
The debt retirement charge pays down the debt of the former Ontario Hydro.
GLOBAL ADJUSTMENT:
Electricity generators in Ontario receive a combination of payments from the
operation of the wholesale market, payments set by regulation and payments under contracts. Your
portion of the net adjustments arising from these and other authorized payments is included on
your bill as the Global Adjustment.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

There's no incentive to cut back your usage. You could run all your appliances all day every day, and only be charged a couple bucks more.

I hate energy companies.

So true, and it's absolutely ridiculous.

Of the $70 for electricity part of my last bill, $12.31 were actual electricity charges. Living in the dark and really conserving energy is just not worth it to get any savings

[Travis Munroe]

I get hosed every month through CARMA. Our building has them metering each unit and this leaves our building with no other option. I have received disconnection notices for bills I never receive. When I call the number they apologize and say it is a mistake (this has happened multiple times). My next bill comes and it is $150 with fees in every which direction. I remember previous electricity bills in apartments I have lived in were $40

[Vulcan]

I don't know where to begin other than to say, screw the utility companies.

[chemgear]

Good Lord, people are getting screwed. Nevermind that they're too scared of Hydro One and have to hide their identity.

http://globalnews.ca/video/3085364/h...tario-families

[Locke]

Originally Posted by chemgear

Good Lord, people are getting screwed. Nevermind that they're too scared of Hydro One and have to hide their identity.

http://globalnews.ca/video/3085364/h...tario-families

Woeful infrastructure? I thought that was what we were deficit spending on...?

[Fuzz]

Wait, the bill they show at around 50 seconds shows they used 4500kwh in a month. WTF! How do you use that much power? I use about 600 in a month.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Wait, the bill they show at around 50 seconds shows they used 4500kwh in a month. WTF! How do you use that much power? I use about 600 in a month.

Yeah...okay.

I dont understand why our various Governments have such a huge problem with inexpensive energy, power and heat. These are assets that a lot of developing countries wished they had.

Yes, I understand that it has environmental consequences. But it seems to me that the more prudent course of action would be using that inexpensive power while working on replacing it, whereas the action currently taken has been to take steps to shut down the sources of the current, inexpensive power and basically force people to fend for themselves until...

As for these people in particular...I'm not going to get into it too much, they seem like something of an extreme case, but if you're $10K in arrears and you're using that much power monthly then maybe some time off the grid was needed, because thats insane.

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Wait, the bill they show at around 50 seconds shows they used 4500kwh in a month. WTF! How do you use that much power? I use about 600 in a month.

I've read that some people in Ontario are billed over a 2 month period, which would make that electricity usage more reasonable (but still high).

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Wait, the bill they show at around 50 seconds shows they used 4500kwh in a month. WTF! How do you use that much power? I use about 600 in a month.

Electric heating vs. natural gas is one possiblity.