Saliem TalashToronto, Ontario
No. 16Writing · Household money5 min read

Read your Ontario electricity bill, pick a plan

What each line on the bill pays for, Time-of-Use, Tiered and Ultra-Low Overnight side by side with the Ontario Energy Board’s own prices, and how to switch with one form to your utility.

By Saliem TalashPrepared with AI assistance

Fig. 1 — A valley road at dusk, the skyline beyond, Toronto.Photograph: Matthew Weldon / Pexels

Most people in Ontario pay their electricity bill without reading past the total. That is a pity, because the bill tells you two useful things: what you are actually paying for, and whether the price plan you are on suits the way you use power. Ontario lets most households and small businesses choose between three plans, and switching takes one form to your utility.

I'm Saliem Talash, I build practical tools for small businesses in Toronto and edit ZELR, and this guide sets out what the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) and the Province say, in plain language. The prices below are the ones the OEB set for November 1, 2025, as its page showed them on October 1, 2026. The OEB says it "sets rates once a year on November 1", so check the page again in November.

The four parts of the bill

The OEB's guide to the bill groups the charges into four lines.

1. Electricity. The cost of the electricity you used, at your price plan's rates. The OEB explains that these prices already include an estimate of the Global Adjustment, which covers the difference between what most generators are guaranteed and what they earn in the wholesale market, plus some conservation programs.

2. Delivery. The cost of getting power to you. It includes a fixed Customer Service Charge (meter reading, billing, customer service and account upkeep), a variable Distribution Charge for your local utility's poles, wires and transformer stations, a Transmission Charge for the high-voltage system, and a Line Loss Adjustment, because a small amount of power is normally lost on the way to you. Some of these charges are the same every month whatever you use; others rise with use.

3. Regulatory. Charges such as the Wholesale Market Service Charge, which covers the cost of the Independent Electricity System Operator running the wholesale market, and the Standard Supply Service Charge, which the OEB says is the same for all utilities in the province.

4. The Ontario Electricity Rebate. The Province says the rebate is automatic for most customers and "appears on bills as a separate line item." Effective November 1, 2025, it gives eligible customers a 23.5% rebate on the subtotal of the bill. Households, farms and small businesses are among those eligible.

Delivery is worth a second look. The OEB says some of its charges stay the same no matter how much electricity you use, so cutting your use lowers the bill by less than you might expect.

The three price plans

Here are the OEB's prices, in cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh).

Time-of-Use (TOU)

  • Off-peak: 9.8¢
  • Mid-peak: 15.7¢
  • On-peak: 20.3¢

On weekdays, off-peak runs from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. On weekends and holidays, the OEB says "the cheapest rates are in effect all day." The mid-peak and on-peak hours swap with the seasons:

  • Winter (November 1 to April 30): on-peak is 7 to 11 a.m. and 5 to 7 p.m.; mid-peak is 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Summer (May 1 to October 31): on-peak is 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; mid-peak is 7 to 11 a.m. and 5 to 7 p.m.

The winter schedule starts on November 1, so the morning and early evening become the expensive hours.

Ultra-Low Overnight (ULO)

  • Ultra-low overnight, every day, 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.: 3.9¢
  • Weekend off-peak, weekends and holidays, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.: 9.8¢
  • Mid-peak, weekdays, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 9 to 11 p.m.: 15.7¢
  • On-peak, weekdays, 4 to 9 p.m.: 39.1¢

The OEB notes that the ULO periods are the same in summer and winter. The spread is the point of this plan: on its numbers, a kWh at 5 p.m. on a weekday costs ten times what it costs at midnight.

Tiered

  • Tier 1: 12.0¢
  • Tier 2: 14.2¢

You pay the Tier 1 price up to a monthly threshold and the Tier 2 price above it. For households, the threshold is 1,000 kWh a month in winter and 600 kWh a month in summer. For small businesses it is 750 kWh a month all year. With Tiered pricing, the time of day does not matter.

Which plan fits

The OEB's own page describes who each plan tends to suit, and adds a caution worth repeating: "There is no guarantee you will save money if you switch."

  • Time-of-Use rewards using power on weekday evenings, overnight and at weekends. The OEB gives the example of people who work different shifts and can use more of their electricity when off-peak prices apply.
  • Ultra-Low Overnight is aimed at people who can move a lot of use to the hours between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., such as charging an electric vehicle overnight. The catch is the 39.1¢ weekday on-peak price from 4 to 9 p.m., which is exactly when many households cook, wash and run the heat.
  • Tiered suits people who want to run the dishwasher and laundry whenever they like, and whose total use rarely goes over the monthly threshold.

A practical way to decide:

  1. Find your monthly use, in kWh, on a recent bill.
  2. Note roughly how much of it falls on weekday afternoons and early evenings.
  3. Put your numbers into the OEB's bill calculator and compare the plans.
  4. If the difference is small, stay where you are. If it is large and you can change when you use power, consider switching.

How to switch

Switching is done with your utility, not the OEB. The OEB is direct about it: "The OEB does not process requests to switch."

  • Ask your utility for the election form, or find it on their website. Keep a recent bill handy for your account number.
  • Within 10 business days, the utility must either tell you why it cannot process the form or tell you when billing on the new plan will start.
  • Timing: a switch can only start at the beginning of a billing period. If the utility gets your form at least 10 business days before your next billing period, it must start the new plan then; if it is later, the change may slip to the following period.
  • No lock-in: the OEB says you can switch between plans at any time.

Some customers cannot choose: those whose meter cannot support Time-of-Use billing, some customers in buildings with unit sub-meters, and anyone on a contract with an energy retailer, who pays the contract price until it ends.

A five-minute bill check

  1. Find the Ontario Electricity Rebate line. If it is missing, ask your utility why.
  2. Note your plan and your monthly kWh.
  3. Compare winter and summer bills: the TOU schedule and the Tiered threshold both change with the season.
  4. Run the OEB bill calculator once a year, ideally after the November 1 price update.
  5. If you are offered a contract with an energy retailer, remember that the price is set by the contract and the OEB does not regulate it. Read the contract before you sign.

I keep short, practical guides like this on my own site, and longer explainers on ZELR. Prices change each November; the OEB and Province of Ontario pages below are the authority.

Sources

Drafted with AI assistance.