Kingston Hydro is responsible for delivering electricity from the Provincial electricity transmission grid to its customers on demand, and for collecting fees from its customers on behalf of those entities that generate, transmit, and retail electricity in Ontario.

Utilities Kingston provides billing and collection services for Kingston Hydro customers. By combining Kingston Hydro electricity account statements with Utilities Kingston sewer, water, and gas statements on one bill, we are able to lower the cost of billing our customers while providing the convenience of one bill for a number of utility services.

Charges on the electricity portion of your bill are split into four categories:

• Electricity Charges

  Electricity charges are based on the amount of electricity you consume a given billing period, measured in kWh. These charges are sometimes referred to as electricity “commodity” charges. All of Kingston Hydro’s residential electricity customers can choose to purchase their electricity commodity either directly from the Provincial grid under the Regulated Price Plan (RPP), or from an Ontario Energy Board licensed retailer. Kingston Hydro collects electricity charges from its customers, and passes them on to the customer’s chosen electricity commodity supplier.

• Delivery Charges

  Delivery charges include a number of components which together cover the cost of getting electricity from generators to your door on demand.

  A portion of these charges is the fixed “Service Charge” levied by Kingston Hydro. This charge covers the fixed costs of connecting, metering, and billing an electricity customer. This charge is levied each billing period and does not vary with the amount of electricity a customer consumes.

  Kingston Hydro collects a “Distribution Volumetric Rate” for each kWh delivered to residential customers to cover the cost of the wires, poles, transformers, and maintenance of the local electricity distribution grid. This along with the fixed “Service Charge” are the only portions of your electricity bill that are kept by Kingston Hydro to cover the cost of providing electricity service to your residence.

  Another portion of these charges covers the cost of delivering of electricity from generators located around the province to Kingston Hydro through the Provincial Electricity Transmission Grid. These are called “Retail Transmission Rates” and are levied on a per kWh basis to residential customers.

• Regulatory Charges

  These charges include the “Wholesale Market Service Rate” that pays for the operation of the Ontario electricity marketplace by the Independent Electricity System Operator, a “Rural Rate Protection Charge” that helps keep electricity affordable in remote areas of the province, and the “Standard Supply Service Charge”, if applicable.

• Debt Retirement Charge

  This charge is collected by Kingston Hydro on a per kWh basis and remitted to the Ontario Electricity Financial Corporation. Debt Retirement Charges are used to cover the stranded debt of the old Ontario Hydro corporation.

Billing Multiplier

While many meters measure in kWh, some may measure fractions or multiples of kWh. The Billing Multiplier is a number by which the meter reading is multiplied by to arrive at actual consumption in kWh.

Usage and Factored Usage

When electricity is transported from the Provincial Transmission Grid to your residence, some of the electricity is used and/or lost as it travels through voltage transformers and distribution wires. In order to account for these losses, your total electricity consumption in kWh is multiplied by “The Total Loss Factor” to arrive at the number of kWh that are required to service your power needs.