Why are there different prices and time periods?
At the request of the Minister of Energy, the Ontario Energy Board developed an electricity price plan to provide stable and predictable electricity pricing, which also encourages conservation and ensures the price consumers pay for electricity better reflects the actual cost of producing the electricity they use. Electricity prices charged per “kilowatt-hour” change throughout the day, like long distance telephone rates used to be, to better reflect the changes in the costs to produce electricity at different times of the day. When total consumption is high, such as a hot summer afternoon, Ontario often has to rely on higher priced sources to produce the same amount of electricity. For example, natural gas generation is generally more expensive to operate than nuclear or hydro generation. One of the Ontario Energy Board’s goals through Time-of-Use pricing is to provide an incentive for consumers to shift some of their consumption away from periods of high total consumption (called “on
