Record heat, record bills

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Got the air-conditioning cranked? Well, expect to get zapped on your hydro bill after this heat wave.

The temperature isn't the only thing soaring this summer. In fact, you could hit a new record on your electricity bill next month — as Ontario did July 13 in its average hourly power consumption — since Toronto Hydro estimates you'll see a whopping 10 to 50 per cent extra on the total bill unless you cut back your energy consumption.

"This could be an expensive summer (for customers) unless you conserve," Toronto Hydro spokesperson Tanya Bruckmueller warned.

Consumers beating the heat in air-conditioned comfort can expect to feel the heat in their wallet as air-conditioning is "a real power sucker" that accounts for half of a customer's bill in the summer months, Bruckmueller said.

"If you've got it going steady at a high rate you could expect to pay 50 per cent more. So if your bill is $100 a month, you might end up paying another $50," she said, adding it's worse, of course, for even bigger households with central air blasting day and night.

The June-July heat wave is the first big hit residents have taken since the province introduced a two-tiered pricing structure last year that now jolts the cost from 5 cents a kilowatt hour for the first 750 kilowatt hours of use to 5.8 cents for anything above that.

And since the average household uses about 1,000 kilowatt hours a month, it means all your excess use will very likely be charged at the higher rate.

"There will be a lot of customers who will see higher bills from this," said Terry Young of Ontario's Independent Electricity Market Operator.

"Last summer we did not have anything near what we're seeing now. There were very few periods where we've been this reliant on air-conditioning," he said. "We're consuming electricity this month like we never have before for the month of July."

Power consumption in Ontario is split fairly evenly three ways between residential, business and industrial use, with Toronto accounting for nearly one-quarter of demand. Toronto's average use on a regular day is 3,500 megawatts, but that almost doubles on a hot day like July 13, when Ontario hit an all-time hourly consumption peak of 26,160 megawatts. Just over two weeks ago, on June 27, the province reached its second highest-ever hourly electricity use of 26,157 megawatts, with the next day the third-highest ever recorded.

July 11 and 12 follow as the fourth and fifth biggest demands on the system while last July was much cooler, when the use peaked at 23,976 megawatts.

Customers will suffer even more next summer when the new rates kick in. Instead of allowing people 750 kilowatt hours a month at the low rate, they'll only get 600 kw hours at the low rate before the higher rate kicks in. That won't apply to winter months though — running Nov. 1 to April 30 — since heat is considered a necessity in Ontario.

For now, most people won't start seeing bills from this heat wave until next month since customers are typically billed for two-month periods.

Toronto Hydro advises that an increase of just one degree on your thermostat results in saving an average of 3 to 5 per cent on your hydro bill.

"We're hoping customers are conserving" energy, Bruckmueller said.