A whine about my Hydro Bill.

The breakdown was as follows:

Electricity: 600 kWh @ 6.5 cents          $39.00

Electricity: 491 kWh @ 7.5 cents           $36.83

Delivery                                                   $70.93

Regulatory Charges                                $  7.75

Debt Retirement Charge                        $  6.99

HST                                                         $21.00

In the fine print at the bottom of the bill are all the reasons excuses why all these extra charges are added on.  However despite their explanations, I still feel as though we are being given the short end of the stick.

This Debt Retirement Charge for instance; no one pays my debts, so why do we have to pay Hydro’s debts?  Same with the Regulatory Charges when you read the fine print, it talks about “including the costs associated with funding Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure conservation and renewable energy programs”  Aren’t we paying already for this through our taxes?  To my mind it’s double dipping?  The HST, well there is nothing I can do about that, so not worth whining about that!

Then my biggest pet peeve, DELIVERY.  It costs nearly as much to have the flipping hydro delivered as to what we actually use.  Believe me I try and conserve energy where ever possible, and only reluctantly put in the a/c unit as my poor husband is in a factory environment where the temps were over 40°C on a number of days this summer, and coming home to a red hot house was just plain cruel.  I hang out my laundry and rarely ever use the dryer.  If we use the dishwasher once every two months, we are doing well.  I use a toaster oven more often than my stove oven. 

We are not perfect at conserving hydro but we are not frivolous either.  I had hoped when the smart meter was up and running that would help reduce our costs, as we had that system in Britain and it worked great.  However after reading news reports over the last few days that doesn’t seem to be the case.

I am dreading the smart meter coming into use in our area, as goodness knows how much more we are going to end up paying.  It seems to me Hydro just increases and increases their bills with no concern on how it will affect its consumers.