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1
Understanding your Ontario electricity bill
An Ontario electricity bill has a commodity charge, four kinds of delivery charge, a regulatory charge, the Ontario Electricity Rebate, HST, and sometimes a payment-in-lieu adjustment. Knowing which lines you can move tells you what is worth shopping.
2
What is the Ontario Electricity Rebate (OER)?
The OER takes a flat percentage off the pre-HST line of your electricity bill. It is the largest single discount most Ontario households receive, and the number has been climbing since 2023.
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1
What is the Regulated Price Plan (RPP)?
The RPP is the price most Ontario homes pay for electricity. The OEB resets it every six months and lets you choose between three price plan structures: Time-of-Use, Tiered, and Ultra-Low Overnight.
2
Time-of-Use vs Tiered vs Ultra-Low Overnight
Three plans, one bill format. Which one saves money depends on when you use power and how flexible your schedule is. Most Ontario customers stay on TOU when one of the other two would beat it.
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1
Bill help: OESP and LEAP in Ontario
Ontario has two main bill-assistance programs. OESP gives an automatic monthly credit based on income and household size. LEAP is a one-time emergency grant when you fall behind. The two stack.
2
The winter disconnection ban and your rights
Between November 15 and April 30, regulated electricity and gas distributors cannot disconnect a residential customer for non-payment. But the bills keep accruing, and the ban does not always apply to apartment sub-meters.
Read in this order
1
Moving home: setting up electricity and gas in Ontario
Your new address picks your electricity distributor and your gas distributor. Your price plan choice and any retailer contract are yours. Most Ontarians get this backwards and end up on the wrong rate plan for months.
2
Time-of-Use vs Tiered vs Ultra-Low Overnight
Three plans, one bill format. Which one saves money depends on when you use power and how flexible your schedule is. Most Ontario customers stay on TOU when one of the other two would beat it.
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Each topic cluster sits on a real seam in Ontario's market — the rules, the players, the rate plan, the bill, the bill help, the practical decisions. Read top-to-bottom inside a cluster if you are new to it.
5 guides
How Ontario's hybrid market works
Ontario is neither fully deregulated like Alberta nor a Crown monopoly like Quebec. The wholesale market is competitive, the retail price is mostly regulated, and the wires belong to monopoly distributors. These guides map the players and the rules.
01
How Ontario's hybrid electricity market actually works
Ontario blends a competitive wholesale market with a mostly-regulated retail price. Once you see the three layers, every confusing line on your bill stops being confusing.
02
Who's who in Ontario energy: IESO, OEB, utilities and retailers
Four groups of organisations run Ontario's energy market. Knowing which one to call when something breaks saves hours of dead-end phone tag.
03
What is the IESO and the wholesale electricity price?
The Independent Electricity System Operator runs the day-ahead and real-time market that sets Ontario's wholesale price every hour. That number sits underneath the regulated rate you pay at home.
04
What is the Global Adjustment (GA)?
The Global Adjustment is the line item that reconciles the wholesale market price with what generators actually get paid under contract. It often beats the market price itself in size, and most Ontario households never see it directly.
05
What is the Ontario Energy Board (OEB)?
The OEB is the independent regulator that sets the Regulated Price Plan every six months, approves every distributor tariff, licenses retailers, and writes the consumer protection rules. Almost every line on your bill traces back to one of its decisions.
2 guides
The companies that deliver your energy
About 60 electricity local distribution companies cover the province for power. A single utility, Enbridge Gas, delivers natural gas to more than 98% of Ontario homes that have it. These guides explain who owns the poles, pipes and meter for your address.
01
Ontario electricity distributors: the Local Distribution Companies
Around 60 Local Distribution Companies, from Hydro One and Toronto Hydro to small rural utilities, own the poles and wires that deliver electricity in Ontario. Your address picks yours; you cannot switch it.
02
Natural gas distributors in Ontario
Since the 2019 merger, Enbridge Gas delivers natural gas to more than 98% of Ontario customers. Two small utilities, EPCOR Natural Gas and NRG, serve the rest. These are monopoly delivery companies.
3 guides
Regulated Price Plan and contract choices
More than nine out of ten Ontario homes are on the OEB's Regulated Price Plan. The other choice is a fixed-rate contract from a licensed retailer. These guides explain the three RPP price plans and how the contract alternative actually compares.
01
What is the Regulated Price Plan (RPP)?
The RPP is the price most Ontario homes pay for electricity. The OEB resets it every six months and lets you choose between three price plan structures: Time-of-Use, Tiered, and Ultra-Low Overnight.
02
Time-of-Use vs Tiered vs Ultra-Low Overnight
Three plans, one bill format. Which one saves money depends on when you use power and how flexible your schedule is. Most Ontario customers stay on TOU when one of the other two would beat it.
03
Fixed-rate energy contracts vs the regulated price
A licensed retailer can lock your rate for three to five years. That sounds safer than the OEB's six-month reset, but the math rarely works out for ordinary households once you include the OER and the bill credit history.
3 guides
Reading your bill line by line
An Ontario electricity bill has at least eight cost lines on top of the commodity charge. A natural gas bill adds another five. These guides decode every one of them and explain the Ontario Electricity Rebate that knocks off nearly a quarter of the pre-tax total.
01
Understanding your Ontario electricity bill
An Ontario electricity bill has a commodity charge, four kinds of delivery charge, a regulatory charge, the Ontario Electricity Rebate, HST, and sometimes a payment-in-lieu adjustment. Knowing which lines you can move tells you what is worth shopping.
02
Understanding your Ontario natural gas bill
Enbridge Gas resets the commodity charge every three months under the Quarterly Rate Adjustment Mechanism. The delivery and storage charges are approved by the OEB and stay flat. These are the two halves that move differently.
03
What is the Ontario Electricity Rebate (OER)?
The OER takes a flat percentage off the pre-HST line of your electricity bill. It is the largest single discount most Ontario households receive, and the number has been climbing since 2023.
2 guides
Licensed retailers and energy contracts
A handful of OEB-licensed retailers sell fixed-rate energy contracts in Ontario. The rules around how they can sell, how you sign, and how you cancel are some of the strictest in Canada. These guides explain the verification call, the 10-day cooling-off period, and what to watch for.
01
What is a licensed energy retailer in Ontario?
Licensed retailers sell fixed-rate energy contracts in a market where the regulated default already exists. The OEB sets strict rules on how they can sell. Knowing those rules is the difference between a good contract and a regret.
02
How to sign or cancel an energy contract in Ontario
Ontario has the strongest cooling-off rules in Canada: a separate verification call, a 10-day cancellation window, and a second 30-day window after the first bill. Knowing exactly when each window closes is what protects you.
2 guides
Bill help and your consumer rights
Ontario runs three different income-based supports plus a province-wide winter ban on disconnections. These guides walk through OESP, LEAP, and exactly what your rights are between November 15 and April 30.
01
Bill help: OESP and LEAP in Ontario
Ontario has two main bill-assistance programs. OESP gives an automatic monthly credit based on income and household size. LEAP is a one-time emergency grant when you fall behind. The two stack.
02
The winter disconnection ban and your rights
Between November 15 and April 30, regulated electricity and gas distributors cannot disconnect a residential customer for non-payment. But the bills keep accruing, and the ban does not always apply to apartment sub-meters.
3 guides
Moving, solar and EV charging
The everyday decisions where the structural rules really start to matter: setting up service after a move, sizing a rooftop solar system under net metering, and choosing the right rate plan if you charge an EV at home.
01
Moving home: setting up electricity and gas in Ontario
Your new address picks your electricity distributor and your gas distributor. Your price plan choice and any retailer contract are yours. Most Ontarians get this backwards and end up on the wrong rate plan for months.
02
Net metering and rooftop solar in Ontario
Ontario Regulation 541/05 lets a home or business under 500 kW export surplus solar to the grid in exchange for retail-rate bill credits that expire after 12 months. The economics depend heavily on which rate plan you are on.
03
EV charging and the Ultra-Low Overnight plan
The Ultra-Low Overnight rate prices electricity at about a tenth of the on-peak rate between 11pm and 7am. For a household that charges an EV overnight, the maths usually beats every other plan in Ontario.
Across Canada
All Canada energy guides
See how every province's market works, plus the cross-Canada programs that apply wherever you live.
Frequently asked questions
Yes — sort of. Distribution is a regulated monopoly: your local distribution company (LDC) is fixed by your address and you cannot change it. But the commodity portion of the bill is open to competition: licensed retailers can sell you a fixed-rate contract that replaces the OEB's Regulated Price Plan rate. Delivery, the Global Adjustment, regulatory charges, the Ontario Electricity Rebate and HST remain identical regardless of who supplies the commodity.
The RPP is the OEB-set default rate for most homes. The OEB updates it every six months (1 May and 1 November) and offers three structures. Time-of-Use (TOU) bills peak, mid-peak and off-peak hours differently — the default for most customers. Tiered bills a low rate up to a monthly threshold and a higher rate above it — better for households whose load is hard to shift. Ultra-Low Overnight (ULO) targets EV owners who can charge between 11pm and 7am at about a tenth of the on-peak rate. You can switch any time by contacting your LDC.
The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) is the economic regulator: it sets the RPP, approves every LDC and gas-utility tariff, licenses retailers and writes consumer-protection rules. The Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) runs the wholesale electricity market. Safety is split: the Electrical Safety Authority (ESA) covers electrical safety; the Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA) covers gas-distribution safety.
Three ways: (1) check your most recent electricity bill — the LDC name and OEB licence number sit at the top of page one; (2) use the OEB's "Find your local utility" tool at oeb.ca; (3) most LDC websites accept a postal-code lookup on their home page. Once you know your LDC, that is the company to call for outages, connections and rate-plan changes.
Always your local distribution company (LDC), never an energy retailer. The retailer cannot dispatch a line crew. Every Ontario LDC profile page on this site lists the 24/7 outage line and live outage map. For a downed live wire or any life-threatening situation, call 911 first.
Two stackable provincial programs. OESP (Ontario Electricity Support Program) gives an automatic monthly credit based on income and household size. LEAP (Low-income Energy Assistance Program) is a one-time emergency grant for customers in arrears, delivered through community partners. Between 15 November and 30 April, regulated distributors cannot disconnect residential customers for non-payment under OEB rules.
Looking up a utility?
See every Ontario distributor
Hydro One, Toronto Hydro, Alectra, Hydro Ottawa and the other ~54 electricity LDCs, plus Enbridge Gas and EPCOR Natural Gas — contact, outage lines and territories on one page.