DURHAM -- Residents will be seeing a price increase on their electricity bills next month.
For a residential consumer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per month, the new prices will result in a bill increase of approximately $2.40 per month.
The cost will be 5.6 cents per kWh for customers who use up to 1,000 kWh each month and 6.5 cents per kWh more than that.
The current rate is five cents per kWh if a customer uses 600 kWh or less and 5.9 cents for consumption above that.
A statement from the Ontario Energy Board gave six reasons why prices would be increasing, including new renewable and natural gas generation projects coming into service and the estimated impact of the government's directive to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal fired generation by a further third by 2011.
One thing keeping costs from going up more than they already have is a forecast of lower electricity market prices due to a decline in expected natural gas prices. Natural gas is used as a fuel to generate close to 10 per cent of Ontario's electricity.
The provincial regulated price plan for electricity is designed to have consumers pay the costs of supplying electricity while smoothing out price variations.
It does not apply to consumers buying their power under contracts with third-party retailers.
-- with files from Tyler Hamilton, Torstar News Network
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