Break down costs of delivery charges of electricity in Ontario

[Mixtli]

Hello everyone,
I hope this is the right place to post this question, if not, please direct me to the right place.

I want to learn how the electricity provider calculates the Delivery costs in Ontario. As per the Ontario Energy Board, they break it down in:
- Customer Service charge (fixed)
- Distribution
- Transmission, and
- Line loss
But they do not provide a formula to calculate such costs. Are those function of the amount of kWh, at a constant rate or per tier? minimum charge and surpassing that starts the rate?.
Even on the first item of the breakdown, they don't specify how much it ie.


The main reason I want to know is to learn how much I will save on energy if I get Solar or Wind. I know how much will I save on kWh, but not sure about the Delivery charges.

Thanks a lot for your help.

Mixtli

 

[LionelHutz]

Dig enough with your supplier and you'll get the details. I know Hydro One has it on their web site, but good luck actually finding it.

 

[cranky108]

The first charge, the customer service charge is per billing cycle. You can't reduce that, unless you disconnect from the electric company. Or a few REA's have a discount if you read your own meter.
But that cost is the cost of reading the meter, deprecation on equipment used to serve only you (or sometimes shared to serve a few people), and the cost of sending you a bill, and the average cost of collecting the money from you. That said, while you likely pay your bill every month, other people don't.

The other costs are by kWH, and are for what they say, except are an average for all the customers in your rate class.
So the last customer on the line is subsidized, and the first customer pays that subsidy.

 

[Hoxton123]

The electricty regulator will audit these costs during the tariff approval process.

 

[LittleInch]

This has most of the answers?

https://www.oeb.ca/consumer-informa...ity-rates/understanding-your-electricity-bill

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[stevenal]

Better look here also. [URL unfurl="true"]https://www.oeb.ca/consumer-information-and-protection/net-metering[/url]

 

[LionelHutz]

Google is your friend here. The utility that bills you must tell you how they calculate your bill, either on their web site or by calling them.

This might be the kind of thing you're likely looking for.

https://www.hydroone.com/rates-and-billing

https://www.hydroone.com/businessservices_/generators_/Documents/FAQ - FIT.pdf

 

[Mixtli]

Thanks a lot for the responses,
Thanks for the links. I read both entirely and I don't think I saw any formula as to how to calculate the delivery charge. there is some sort of explanation of what they are, but not the method of calculation. So what I did was graph both values from my bills (kWh and Delivery $) and determine where the Delivery cost by extending the lines. I did the math and got 27.13 cad.
Do you guys think this would be realistic to measure the savings when not buying energy from the vendor and rather using net metering?

Thoughts?

Cheers

T.

 

[Mixtli]

I just realized I didn't read Lionel's post before posting, I am not Hydro One, but that gave me a hint to dig deeper on the provider mentioned in my bill, so hopefully, I'll find out something.

Cheers

T.

 

[stevenal]

Do you guys think this would be realistic to measure the savings when not buying energy from the vendor and rather using net metering?

It's not really either/or. With net metering you buy energy from the utility at night or when the wind stops blowing, but get credited for the excess you generate during the day or when the wind blows.

The third choice is to install a battery bank and go off grid.

 

[Sparweb]

There are a couple of websites in Alberta that not only explain everything but also offer you comparison tables from the various retailers. Our regulatory scheme is quite different from Ontario's (we have regulated competition in AB, and I thought you have a state monopoly in ON) but the politics of the systems won't be worth comparing. The components of your bill are named the same things as in my bill, though I get miscellaneous stuff called "rate riders". Most of it is a multiple of consumption in kWhr per month, with some having a fixed charge plus the rate. It's pretty easy to work out as a straight line trend.

I once did calculations of my own, with similar goals as yours.

It's on its way up, here. Fast.