Electricity Charges Breakdown
Québec electricity rates for residences and commercial customers comprise more than just the cost of electricity in the province. It includes administration fees, connection and distribution costs.
Approved by the Régie de l’énergie, the service charges and rates are costs added to the electricity bills you pay every month. Some of these fees vary depending on your electricity consumption, whereas others are the same for all Hydro-Québec customers.
Hydro-Québec offers several rate options. The base rates are the general options for Québec residents. They include:
- Rate D: The basic rate charged to most residential and farm customers. The option has two-tiered pricing.
- Rate DP: Applies to homes when the maximum power demand reaches 50 kW or more at least once during the last 12 monthly periods. The option also applies to farms whose maximum power demand meets this threshold.
- Rate DM: Applies to multi-unit residential buildings, such as apartments and condos.
- Rate DN: Applies to residential and farm customer served by an off-grid system located north of the 53rd parallel, with the exception of the Schefferville system.
Dynamic pricing rates are designed to help residents lower their electricity bills by changing their consumption habits. They include:
- Rate Flex D: Enables customers to save money in winter by shifting (at Hydro Québec’s request) non-essential consumption to outside peak demand events and using less electricity during those events. This rate applies to residential and farm customers.
- Winter Credit Option for Rate D Customers: At Hydro-Québec’s request, customers can lower their electricity consumption during peak demand events, thus helping them save money.
The dual-energy rate applies to residential and farm customers that have a heating system that uses two energy sources: electricity and fuel.
System access charge: Regardless of how much electricity you use, the system access charge is the amount you pay for the electricity service. It is calculated through a simple equation:
The daily system access charge is multiplied by the number of days in the consumption period (usually 30 days) by the per-day charge.
Although your system access charge won’t change based on your monthly consumption, there is a system access charge for each consumption size or rate group, from residential to industrial energy customers.
As of April 1, 2024, the system access charge for the Rate D group (the standard rate for most residential consumers) was 44.810 ¢/day in the billing period. The first 40 kilowatt-hours (kWh) used per day cost 6.704 ¢, while the remaining consumption costs 10.342 ¢/kWh.
Some other charges you could potentially notice in your Hydro-Québec bill:
- Contract administration charge: No cost, if the request is sent through self-service
- Contract administration charge: $25, if the request is sent through other platforms
- Charge for work: No cost for remote. $140 for at the meter, $360 for on the system
- Charge for travel without work: $170
- Meter inaccessibility charges: $85
- Monthly meter reading charge (according to bill cycle): $2.50
- Charge for insufficient funds: $10
- Initial installation charge: $85
Natural Gas Rates Breakdown
Natural gas rates in Québec are broken up into many separate charges, including transportation and distribution costs, the natural gas supply and the basic fees.
As of early 2019, the costs below were the main rates charged in an Énergir bill, formerly known as Gaz Métro, which is Québec’s largest natural gas distributor and the default provider in most areas.
Natural gas supply: Covers the cost of supplying of natural gas supplied to customers. The supply price is modified monthly.
- Natural gas supply (the natural gas supplied to each home or facility): 9.321 ¢/m³ effective May 1, 2024
Transportation costs: Covers the cost of transporting natural gas from production sites to Énergir’s service area.
Basic fee: Administration costs associated with each metering device for the billing period. This calculation is usually structured as:
[Metering device] x [days (billing period)] x [rate] = Basic fee
As of early 2019, the general service rate was 54.989 cents per day and per metering device. For example, a household with only one meter and a 30-day billing period would pay:
1 x 30 x 54.989 cents = 1,631.9670 cents, or $16.319670.
However, it’s essential to notice that some of these rates can change depending on your energy consumption size and your natural gas suppliers. Consumers in Québec have the freedom to choose their natural gas providers, which can result in different natural gas rates, as well as contrasting administration fees.
If you want to know more about your energy options, go to the EnergyRates.ca comparison form, fill in your postal code and compare natural gas rates in Québec.
