Hydro-Quebec rate hike approved

subscribe

Consumers rights groups are expressing concern over the latest increase in the cost of electricity in Quebec.

Electricity rates will go up by 0.4 per cent effective April 1 after the province's energy board approved Hydro-Québec's latest request for an increase.

The hike will mean an additional cost of 43 cents per month for the average residential customer.

Hydro-Québec requested the increase to compensate for a drop in commercial sales and a change in accounting methods, spokesperson Josée Morin said.

The higher rate was approved even though residential customers should have been entitled to a 2.2 per cent cut in energy rates, said Charles Tanguay of the consumer advocacy group Union des consommateurs.

The energy board seems to accept Hydro-Québec's requests without question, Tanguay said.

"Hydro-Québec makes enormous profits - $3 billion a year," he said. "Increases like this amount to taxing electricity.

"Provinces like Ontario pay much more for their electricity because it costs them more to produce it."

Tanguay predicts that the real debate over energy costs will happen after the upcoming provincial budget.

He expects the government will announce an increase in the rates for the so-called heritage block of energy, which is not subject to the board's approval.

"An increase of one cent per kWh would represent a 15 per cent increase of our rates," said Tanguay. "We're not just talking crumbs here - that is a lot of money."

The board has also authorized the utility to spend $294 million on an energy efficiency plan, including $81 million aimed at its residential clientele.

Related News

ottawa hydro

Ottawa sets out to protect its hydro heritage

OTTAWA - The city of Ottawa is looking to designate five hydro substations built nearly a century ago as heritage structures, a move intended to protect the architectural history of Ottawa's earliest forays into the electricity business.

All five buildings are still used by Hydro Ottawa to reduce the voltage coming from transmission lines before the electricity is transmitted to homes and businesses.

Electricity came to Ottawa in 1882 when two carbon lamps were installed on LeBreton Flats, heritage planner Anne Fitzpatrick told the city's built heritage subcommittee on Tuesday. It became a lucrative business, and soon a privately owned monopoly.

In 1905,…

READ MORE
charts

Four Facts about Covid and U.S. Electricity Consumption

READ MORE

On the road to 100 per cent renewables

READ MORE

renewables 2030 graph

U.S. Renewable and Clean Energy Industries Set Sights on Market Majority

READ MORE

octopus-energy-makes-inroads-into-u-renewables

Octopus Energy Makes Inroads into US Renewables

READ MORE