Electricity Bills

An important element of Alberta’s restructured electricity marketplace is the freedom for customers to choose the energy provider and products that best suit their needs. The key to making informed decisions in this new consumer environment is knowledge. Here’s a look at the components of a typical residential Alberta electricity bill and what consumers should know about them.

Meter reading – Estimated (E) or Actual (A)
The Settlement System Code requires electric meters for small consumers be read by distribution companies, on average, once every two months. 

Energy Charges
This is the cost of electric energy you have used in a billing period. These charges are expressed in cents per kilowatt-hour (¢/kWh).  Alberta residential consumers are being offered a number of energy price options:

• Beginning July 1, 2006, a new Regulated Rate Option (RRO) is being used to bill consumers who have not signed an energy contract. The new RRO is now based on electricity purchases that include a blend of short- and long-term market prices. The change is being transitioned over four years. Consumers may notice the price of electricity may change from month to month, depending on market conditions. Read more about the RRO... 
• Consumers can either let their power company issue monthly bills based on consumption that uses a combination of actual and estimated usage figures, or they can provide their meter reading regularly to ensure their power company gets accurate consumption details. Contact your utility to learn if they accept customer meter readings.
  Cancel/Rebill
• If you notice a "cancel/rebill" on your bill”, it means that initial charges for the referenced billing period are being cancelled and new charges are being billed. There are a number of reasons why previous billed charges may be cancelled: for example, corrected meter reading or the replacement of estimated read with an actual read.
  Change in billing date
• Your billing period is normally within the range of 27 to 35 days and your billing date is aligned to your meter reading date. However, if your meter reading date changes, so will your billing date. The billing period subsequent to the change to your meter reading date may be longer or shorter than usual.

Administration Charge
This fee covers the costs related to billing you for electricity and providing customer service.

Delivery Charges
The delivery charge is the regulated cost of delivering electricity to consumers. Consumers have always paid for the costs of receiving power from the interconnected grid (meter, wires and billing). More detailed delivery charges may be shown on your bill in one of two ways:

a) Described as distribution and transmission:

• Distribution – the cost of building, operating and maintaining the local distribution system
• Transmission – the cost of building, operating and maintaining the provincial power grid.

b) Or, shown instead as a fixed delivery charge and a variable delivery charge:

• Fixed Delivery Charge – the costs of building and maintaining the local and provincial grids to deliver electricity to consumers regardless of consumption.
• Variable Delivery Charge – the cost for the operation of the distribution and transmission systems based on the amount of energy consumed.

The high-voltage transmission and low-voltage distribution systems remain regulated and distribution tariffs are approved by the respective regulators.

Local Access Fee
The electric company, on behalf of local government, collects this fee to access municipal land to construct, maintain and operate distribution systems serving the residents of the city, town, or village.

Rate Rider(s)
A rider is a temporary credit or charge approved by the regulator. Riders occur when the actual costs incurred by a utility to provide electricity service to their customers differ from their approved rates.  Delivery rate riders are associated with distribution and transmission costs.  Energy riders are no longer allowed, but the possibility of delivery rate riders still remains because distribution and transmission rates are often based on forecasted costs that may differ from actual costs.

Green Power
This is electricity produced from a “renewable” or environmentally friendly source such as hydro, biomass, wind or solar. Visit our green energy options page.

Goods and Services Tax
The five per cent GST calculation is based on the total costs in your bill. This results in a corresponding increase when the energy charge or other components of the bill rise.