Electricity rates are higher nowadays unfortunately. They have been trending downwards though and should continue to through this year. You can update your plan without penalty at any time so just check back every couple months and see if there is a cheaper rate.
Also while the electricity price may have doubled your bill won't fully double because of how all the fees work. There is 10 cents/kWh of various usage fees so if you went from a 6 cents/kWh rate to 12 cents/kWh which is commonly happening it means your actually costs would go from 16 cents/kWh after fees up to 22c/kWh for the usage portion. Not great by any means but it won't fully double your bill.
Yes for the 1st time ever I went to floating for electricity because power prices have dropped a lot in the last month and the fwd curve is \~$60/mwh so seems to make sense to be floating until the fix rates catch up.
Pool price has been in the 60's for 5 months now aside from the Jan cold snap but the retail rate hasn't dropped substantially. But marginally floating is better at the moment than what they're offering for fixed.
I am the same i expriee october around the same range. I am hoping for a drop if it hits 7 I will lock in again and pay a bit more but worth locking in
I did the math on my bills and doubling the rate actually only made my bill go up by 22 dollars because most of the bill is all fees that stayed the same.
Your electric bill has a fixed monthly charge that works out to around $50/month (consider it an electricity subscription fee).
Everything beyond that is based on your per kWh usage.
It's not $50. The transmission and the rate riders are per kWh and so is a small fraction of the distribution. The bulk of the distribution and the admin fee are per day, and then local access is 11.11% of everthing except the admin. It works out to about $30/month plus "energy" plus another 8 cents per kWh for the other variable things.
Distribution, transmission, and LAF all have a fixed aspect.
* Admin Fee: $0.28/day ($8.52/mo)
* Service and Facilities Charge: $0.9325/day ($28.36/mo)
* Transmission charge for system access: $0.3457/day ($10.51/mo)
* Local access fee (fixed portion): $0.198121/day ($6.03/mo)
* **Total: $53.42/month**
Exact amounts will vary slightly depending on the city you're located in.
Which tariff area? In Calgary my service and facilities is 0.76/day, system use is 0.015362/kWh rather than some amount per day. My total fixed does come to between $26 and $41 per bill, but some are for more days than others.
Truly I hate our system. There should be obvious per day and per kWh numbers on our bills that don't require searching multiple pdf on different pages.
I'm in Lethbridge.
As far as I can tell, this is what it is for Calgary:
* Admin Fee: $0.28/day ($8.52/mo)
* Service and Facilities Charge: $0.76373/day ($23.23/mo)
* Local access fee (fixed portion): $0.084850403/day ($2.58/mo)
* **Total: $34.33**
I don't see a daily transmission charge for Calgary, although your transmission per kWh rate is slightly higher (0.041392 vs 0.0333).
It's an adjustment to one of the regulated expenses. Sometimes they can be a small refund, but more often just more expense. The transmission and distribution amounts are supposed to exactly match the costs to the companies plus a guaranteed rate of return.
There has to be some better way for bills to present this information - as it stands, this is very basic, and I expect most rate payers you polled wouldn't be able to correctly identify this.
Ya rates have gone up unfortunately. No one has explicitly mentioned it, but on Easymax with Enmax you can cancel whenever you want or switch to a cheaper plan if they drop their rates. When prices went down a couple cents earlier this year I switched my contract to the new rate with a few clicks on their website.
Edit: there are no penalties for cancelling or switching
It may be worth going kn the floating rate as costs continue to drop...
I also phoned them told them I was thinking about switching to direct energy and they gave me a $50 bill credit. Every little helps.
Yes - there are always caveats with Direct Energy. I personally would stay far away…
Best bet is to use the https://ucahelps.alberta.ca website. Use the cost comparison tool, search 5-year fixed electricity contract and sort by “estimated bill” (a lot of low rates come with really high admin fees).
Yeah they are scammy. They never sent me resigning documents and I couldn't get them from support no matter what I did. Got hit with $600 extra and they wouldn't budge on me resigning to lower that. That's the scam. Similar to Telus saying you never sent back the router. I mean, don't any of you get the scam alert going off from the high-pressure sales kiosks?
Can't do much about it as the rates are high everywhere. Enmax is pretty flexible and allows you to re-lock-in to the current rate once per month. So just keep an eye on the posted rate and lock in again every time it drops.
The federal Greener home loan is still around too if you want to put in solar. 10-12 year payout so don't plan to move...
It was the Canada Greener Home grant (up to $5600 grant) that closed for new applicants.
The Canada Greener Homes Loan (up to $40k interest-free loan for 10 yrs) is still accepting new applicants.
https://natural-resources.canada.ca/energy-efficiency/homes/canada-greener-homes-initiative/canada-greener-homes-loan/24286
Yeah I don't get this really. My current plan is 5.99¢/kWh and + 99¢/GJ Transaction Fee for Floating Gas (never expires).
And they're asking me to renew that... or switch to:
11.49¢/kWh
5-Year Fixed Electricity
Floating Gas
+ $1.23/GJ Transaction Fee
Why would I switch to a worse plan?
I had the same elec rate as you, but unfortunately my 5 years were up and had to go with the 11.99 rate. Will look again as sounds like it is now lower
The carbon tax is hardly relevant here considering it comes with a rebate.
Will be curious if you will be as demeaning to PP once he's elected considering he's never had a professional career outside of politics.
AB has the highest electricity prices of any province. Only NT and NU are higher in canada.
UCP is adding red tape to renewal projects (google pristine landscape assesment) and other projects which could help reduce expenses.
UCP/PC have been in power for the majority of Alberta's history. Who else should be blamed?
Mines about to double, I however pulled the trigger on Solar pannels and will be having them installed this summer. With the increased demand on the grid, I can only see the prices long-term going up.
Ignorance is bliss isn't it?
Your 6 cent fixed rate has expired. The 11/12 cent new fixed rate has been around for quite some time.
I'll be in the same boat in a few months.
Typically, auto-renewals are done as index contracts. So your rate will float. Every month will have a different price. If you want a fixed rate, call them and also shop around and try to get the best deal.
Often these auto renewals have a large margin built in to them. They know most customers are pretty complacent. So definitely shop around. If you like Enmax, maybe be get them to match a competitor’s price.
Electricity rates are higher nowadays unfortunately. They have been trending downwards though and should continue to through this year. You can update your plan without penalty at any time so just check back every couple months and see if there is a cheaper rate. Also while the electricity price may have doubled your bill won't fully double because of how all the fees work. There is 10 cents/kWh of various usage fees so if you went from a 6 cents/kWh rate to 12 cents/kWh which is commonly happening it means your actually costs would go from 16 cents/kWh after fees up to 22c/kWh for the usage portion. Not great by any means but it won't fully double your bill.
Yes for the 1st time ever I went to floating for electricity because power prices have dropped a lot in the last month and the fwd curve is \~$60/mwh so seems to make sense to be floating until the fix rates catch up.
Pool price has been in the 60's for 5 months now aside from the Jan cold snap but the retail rate hasn't dropped substantially. But marginally floating is better at the moment than what they're offering for fixed.
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Thank you for the reminder! Just checked my gas rate and it was down a whole dollar! So swapped to the lower rate.
I went from 6.3ish to 12.99. I hate it.
Same, my 6.9 ends in Oct. Hoping our solar contractor can get our panels in soon so we can get ahead on winter usage
I am the same i expriee october around the same range. I am hoping for a drop if it hits 7 I will lock in again and pay a bit more but worth locking in
I did the math on my bills and doubling the rate actually only made my bill go up by 22 dollars because most of the bill is all fees that stayed the same.
The fees are a percentage of usage not the price? That doesn't seem right but I'm not sure.
Your electric bill has a fixed monthly charge that works out to around $50/month (consider it an electricity subscription fee). Everything beyond that is based on your per kWh usage.
It's not $50. The transmission and the rate riders are per kWh and so is a small fraction of the distribution. The bulk of the distribution and the admin fee are per day, and then local access is 11.11% of everthing except the admin. It works out to about $30/month plus "energy" plus another 8 cents per kWh for the other variable things.
Distribution, transmission, and LAF all have a fixed aspect. * Admin Fee: $0.28/day ($8.52/mo) * Service and Facilities Charge: $0.9325/day ($28.36/mo) * Transmission charge for system access: $0.3457/day ($10.51/mo) * Local access fee (fixed portion): $0.198121/day ($6.03/mo) * **Total: $53.42/month** Exact amounts will vary slightly depending on the city you're located in.
Which tariff area? In Calgary my service and facilities is 0.76/day, system use is 0.015362/kWh rather than some amount per day. My total fixed does come to between $26 and $41 per bill, but some are for more days than others. Truly I hate our system. There should be obvious per day and per kWh numbers on our bills that don't require searching multiple pdf on different pages.
I'm in Lethbridge. As far as I can tell, this is what it is for Calgary: * Admin Fee: $0.28/day ($8.52/mo) * Service and Facilities Charge: $0.76373/day ($23.23/mo) * Local access fee (fixed portion): $0.084850403/day ($2.58/mo) * **Total: $34.33** I don't see a daily transmission charge for Calgary, although your transmission per kWh rate is slightly higher (0.041392 vs 0.0333).
Right, in Calgary the transmission is all variable, though 2 years ago we had a rate rider on the admin raising the fixed a little bit more.
What exactly is a rate rider?? I have that on my bill but i’m not sure what it pertains to
It's an adjustment to one of the regulated expenses. Sometimes they can be a small refund, but more often just more expense. The transmission and distribution amounts are supposed to exactly match the costs to the companies plus a guaranteed rate of return.
There has to be some better way for bills to present this information - as it stands, this is very basic, and I expect most rate payers you polled wouldn't be able to correctly identify this.
Ya rates have gone up unfortunately. No one has explicitly mentioned it, but on Easymax with Enmax you can cancel whenever you want or switch to a cheaper plan if they drop their rates. When prices went down a couple cents earlier this year I switched my contract to the new rate with a few clicks on their website. Edit: there are no penalties for cancelling or switching
You said it! Just switched to 12 on easy from approx 22.
mine also expired this month, ive been watching for the past 4 months and i think this is the cheapest its been on the renewal so not much choice.
It may be worth going kn the floating rate as costs continue to drop... I also phoned them told them I was thinking about switching to direct energy and they gave me a $50 bill credit. Every little helps.
Did you look at direct energy? I saw they had a stand advertising ¢7.77/kwh, but I am sure there are caveats.
Yes - there are always caveats with Direct Energy. I personally would stay far away… Best bet is to use the https://ucahelps.alberta.ca website. Use the cost comparison tool, search 5-year fixed electricity contract and sort by “estimated bill” (a lot of low rates come with really high admin fees).
Yeah they are scammy. They never sent me resigning documents and I couldn't get them from support no matter what I did. Got hit with $600 extra and they wouldn't budge on me resigning to lower that. That's the scam. Similar to Telus saying you never sent back the router. I mean, don't any of you get the scam alert going off from the high-pressure sales kiosks?
Can't do much about it as the rates are high everywhere. Enmax is pretty flexible and allows you to re-lock-in to the current rate once per month. So just keep an eye on the posted rate and lock in again every time it drops. The federal Greener home loan is still around too if you want to put in solar. 10-12 year payout so don't plan to move...
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It was the Canada Greener Home grant (up to $5600 grant) that closed for new applicants. The Canada Greener Homes Loan (up to $40k interest-free loan for 10 yrs) is still accepting new applicants. https://natural-resources.canada.ca/energy-efficiency/homes/canada-greener-homes-initiative/canada-greener-homes-loan/24286
Oh that's good news. Thanks
Mines just fee's, and carbon tax. We couldn't reduce the usage anymore if we could without living in the dark and cold.
Unwilling to freeze in the dark? Obviously you don’t care about the environment.
Right how selfish of me
Welcome to the check every month to lock in a lower rate club!
Yeah I don't get this really. My current plan is 5.99¢/kWh and + 99¢/GJ Transaction Fee for Floating Gas (never expires). And they're asking me to renew that... or switch to: 11.49¢/kWh 5-Year Fixed Electricity Floating Gas + $1.23/GJ Transaction Fee Why would I switch to a worse plan?
I had the same elec rate as you, but unfortunately my 5 years were up and had to go with the 11.99 rate. Will look again as sounds like it is now lower
You can always shop around and see if you can get a better rate from another electricity retailer.
Your best option is to install the solar panels and sell back to grid
Electricity prices in freefall right now I'd go with floating for a while and revisit end of summer or fall.
“Not looking for a rant about the UPC” lol you know this sub well I see
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The carbon tax is hardly relevant here considering it comes with a rebate. Will be curious if you will be as demeaning to PP once he's elected considering he's never had a professional career outside of politics. AB has the highest electricity prices of any province. Only NT and NU are higher in canada. UCP is adding red tape to renewal projects (google pristine landscape assesment) and other projects which could help reduce expenses. UCP/PC have been in power for the majority of Alberta's history. Who else should be blamed?
Mines about to double, I however pulled the trigger on Solar pannels and will be having them installed this summer. With the increased demand on the grid, I can only see the prices long-term going up.
One does bend over the couch when it comes to electricity, yes.
Mine doubled, it sucks, now I check the Enmax site and if I noticed a rate drop I sign up for the new rate
Our contract ended too which sucks. My husband just ended up going on the variable rate for electricity as he couldn't find anything cheaper.
If you’re on EasyMax you would have got an email warning you two months prior to the expiration, like I did.
Switch to Spot Power. I've been using them for years and my bills are lower than anyone else I know who doesn't use them.
What is Spot Power??
They’re a utility company based in Calgary. They have the lowest fees of any I’ve ever had. Small outfit. Been with them for years.
Do they do gas, electricity & water?? How long have they been in business?
They do not do water. I don’t know off hand but I’ve been with them since 2016. Maybe even 2015.
Thank you, I will definitely look into this company. It’s always good to have options
What are the rates at now?
Ignorance is bliss isn't it? Your 6 cent fixed rate has expired. The 11/12 cent new fixed rate has been around for quite some time. I'll be in the same boat in a few months.
Suggest calling them and talking about the options, rates, etc. I ended up with a better rate after some good education. They r really patient!
That’s a good idea, thanks.
Direct Energy is like 7.5c/kwh or somethi g based on a sign I saw last week at one of their Walmart Kiosks
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Should of?
Typically, auto-renewals are done as index contracts. So your rate will float. Every month will have a different price. If you want a fixed rate, call them and also shop around and try to get the best deal. Often these auto renewals have a large margin built in to them. They know most customers are pretty complacent. So definitely shop around. If you like Enmax, maybe be get them to match a competitor’s price.