OCEB rebate coming to Veridian customers

Ontario Clean Energy Benefit offers a 10% rebate on electricity bills, covering delivery, regulatory charges, debt retirement, and taxes for residential, farm, and small business customers in Ontario, aligned with time-of-use pricing and conservation programs.

Veridian customers will be among the first in Ontario to start receiving a 10 per cent rebate on electricity bills when its regularly scheduled invoices are issued.

The rebate, called the Ontario Clean Energy Benefit OCEB, is an Ontario government initiative aligned with pricing consultations underway in the province, intended to help customers manage the rising cost of electricity for the next five years.

The OCEB will provide a 10 rebate on most components of a customer's total electricity bill, including electricity costs, regulatory and delivery charges, the debt retirement charge and taxes. It will apply to charges relating to electricity consumed from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2015. Those eligible for the OCEB include residential, farm and small business consumers engaged in business conservation programs in their communities.

Once the benefit is fully implemented, an average Veridian residential customer, including those in Belleville and nearby areas, using 1,000 kWh will see a reduction of about $13 per month.

"The Ontario Clean Energy Benefit will provide some much-needed financial relief to Veridian customers on their electricity bills," said Rob Scarffe, Veridian's Executive Vice-President of Customer Services. "The benefit, combined with conservation and demand management programs and energy storage projects and time-of-use electricity pricing, will help our customers better manage their electricity costs and support the province's transition to a cleaner electricity system."

The OCEB will be shown as a separate line item on electricity bills. The line item will be labelled as "Ontario Clean Energy Benefit -10".

Scarffe points out that the initial rebate amounts will be less than 10 of total electricity charges, and as initiatives such as EV incentives roll out, consumption patterns may shift, as invoices issued during the first several weeks of 2011 will cover billing periods that include consumption during late 2010. "Customers will see the full impact of the rebate on bills issued after about mid-March," he said. "Until that time, most customer bills will include charges related to pre-January 1st, 2011 consumption, to which the Ontario Clean Energy Benefit does not apply."

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