Hydro-Quebec won't ask for rate hike next year
Hydro-Quebec Distribution will not file a rate adjustment application with the province’s energy board this year.
In a statement released on Friday the Crown Corporation said it wants current electricity rates to be maintained for another year, starting April 1. That is consistent with the recently tabled Bill 34, which guarantees lower electricity rates for Quebecers.
The bill also provides a $500 million rebate in 2020, half of which will go to residential customers while $190 million will go to commercial customers and another $60 million to industrial ones.
Hydro-Quebec said the 2020-21 rate freeze will generate savings of nearly $1 billion for its clients over the next five years.
Bill 34, which was tabled in June, also proposes to set rates based on inflation for the years 2021 to 2024. After 2025 Hydro-Quebec would have to ask the energy board to set new rates every five years, as opposed to the current annual system.
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German coalition backs electricity subsidy for industries
BERLIN - Germany’s three-party coalition is debating whether electricity prices for energy-intensive industries should be subsidised to prevent companies from moving production abroad.
Calls to reduce the electricity bill for big industrial producers are being made by leading politicians, who, like others in Germany, fear the country could lose its position as an industrial powerhouse as it gradually shifts away from fossil fuel-based production.
“It is in the interest of all of us that this strong industry, which we undoubtedly have in Germany, is preserved,” Lars Klingbeil, head of Germany’s leading government party SPD (S&D), told Bayrischer Rundfunk on Wednesday.
To achieve this,…
