Energy Toolbase June 2021 Utility Rates Newsletter

International global rates were added in Costa Rica and Mexico

Here's what our rates team added in May 2021

IMPORTANT MONTHLY UPDATES

Changes in Regulated Price Plan Rates:

May 2021 brings us back to our “normal” updates for all Ontario utilities! Due to the COVID-19 pandemic starting in 2020, Canadian utilities implemented a “Temporary Electricity Rate Relief” to their supply charges in order to better accommodate customers during this difficult time. Time of Use customers were being charged a FIXED electricity price of 12.8cents/kWh while Tiered customers had their winter tier threshold extended so customers would have an additional 400kWh/month available at a lower price.

In order to maintain accuracy for incoming solar proposals, ETB decided not to include these COVID-19 discounts and moved forward with back-dated supply charges within our rates. Previously ETB was including supply charges from 5/1/19 (Summer) and 11/1/20 (Winter). Now that we are starting to see change within the pandemic, Canadian utilities are getting back to updating their rates as per usual judging from their most recent May update. 

Please see below for a Supply Rate Comparison regarding Time-of-Use (TOU) and Tiered rate structures for the average Residential & Small Business customer:

FirstEnergy Utilities – SOS/Price to Compare Updates:

Expect FirstEnergyCorp Utilities to be updating their Generation rates this June! Multiple line items are subject to change as we enter the Summer season. Below is a brief description of the overall increases for certain charges in this update: 

• Jersey Central Power & Light
  • Updated their Price to Compare rates for Energy, Transmission, and Reconciliation charges. Residential rates will show a 7% increase for both the Summer and Winter season while the General Service (GS) rates reflect about a 7% increase for Summer and a 9% increase for Winter.
• The Potomac Edison Company – MD
  • General Service (GS) & Commercial (C) Type I SOS charges have increased for Summer by 9% and 7% for the Winter. However, Type II rates have gone up about 25% compared to last summer’s SOS charges.
• Pennsylvania Utilities (Penn Power, Penn Electric, West Penn, & Metropolitan)
  • Price to Compare Default Service Rider has increased across the board for all FirstEnergy Utilities. Residential customers will see a 25% increase for this charge while Commercial customers will see only a 6% increase. Although, West Penn Power seems to be taking the opposite approach: Residential class shows an increase of 10% while Commercial shows an increase of 25%.
• Ohio Utilities (Ohio Edison, Illuminating CO., Toledo Edison)
  • June also brings us FirstEnergy’s annual update to their Generation Service Rider for Ohio utilities. This rider contains line items like Capacity and Energy charges. Comparing to last June, General Service customers will expect about a 3-5% increase, while Residential bills will reflect about a 13-15% increase within their generation charges.

Having visibility into the default supply and generation rates may also be used as a comparison tool to help you decide if you can save money by choosing another supplier. All of the above utilities have been updated in ETB with the changes described above and are ready for your use!

SCE Rates Effective 6/1/2021: 

One of the largest California IOUs, Southern California Edison, published its new charges effective June 2021.  According to Advice Letter 4488-E, submitted on April 30, 2021, this month's update has been approved by the CPUC and FERC for the purposes of adjusting various components and recovering an amount of $115.885 million through the rate increase. 

Comparing to February 2021, the bill component that has been affected the most is the Public Purpose Programs Charge (PPPC), requiring $182,676 in additional revenue, increasing on average by 17% across different rate schedules. The Generation charges also increased but not that drastically, by only around 0.1%. Charges related to distribution and transmission, luckily for customers, decreased significantly enough to make the jump in the PPPC component less noticeable. Overall, customers may expect their bills to be only around 1% higher. ETB users already have access to the newly activated rates.