{"id":4764,"date":"2016-11-04T18:00:19","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T18:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stgpmmenergy.wpengine.com\/ontario\/ontario-energy-market-regulated\/"},"modified":"2016-11-04T18:00:19","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T18:00:19","slug":"ontario-energy-market-regulated","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/energyrates.ca\/fr\/ontario\/ontario-energy-market-regulated\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Ontario Energy Market is Regulated"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ontario<\/a>\u2019s energy market is not completely run by the government, nor is it a completely open market. The truth is that it\u2019s a bit of both, with the Ontario government continuing to remain involved in the acquisition of much the area\u2019s energy supply, while competitive companies are allowed to acquire and sell energy as well. While this might suggest that there\u2019s a fairly equitable split between the number of residents who use regulated energy and those who purchase from retailers, in fact about 90% of Ontario consumers are served by regulated utility companies.<\/p>\n

Regulated Electricity in Ontario<\/h2>\n

For much of the last century, Ontario Hydro (now Hydro One<\/a>) was the generator and supplier of electricity for most of the province. During this time, 100% of the province\u2019s residents and businesses paid rates that were controlled by the government. But beginning in the 1970s, it became increasingly apparent that the cost of repairing older generation stations, cost overruns for the construction of new systems, and subsided energy prices were creating insurmountable amounts of debt.<\/p>\n

To address this issue, the Energy Competition Act was passed in 1998. The Act called for the restructuring of the electricity market, in order to allow private companies to participate. As required by the new law, Ontario Hydro was divided into five companies:<\/p>\n