EDMONTON – Hundreds of thousands of EPCOR customers are in for a shock this month, as rising electricity rates set the stage for significant billing increases.
The increase, which applies to those who take advantage of EPCOR’s Regulated Rate Option, will affect an estimated 270,000 customers in Edmonton alone.
“We’re price takers,” said EPCOR spokesperson Tim LaRiche. “It’s just like the stock market. We have to buy power at whatever price the market demands.”
Rates have nearly doubled since May, when prices sat at 6.3 cents per kilowatt hour. For October the residential rate will be 12.4 cents per kilowatt hour.
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For the average EPCOR customer the increase will translate into a $25 increase on their next bill. Among those customers is Ian Robertson, who says he’s frustrated by fluctuating energy prices.
“Every time they’re squeezing a handful of more dollars out of your pocket it affects you,” Robertson said.
“Everyone knew that this was going to be the result of this deregulated energy program and, yeah, it’s coming true.”
LaRiche says there’s no single factor that accounts for the increase.
“Population growth, the general usage patterns of the public at large, it could have been that a couple power plants were down,” he said.
LaRiche says customers can insulate themselves from rate fluctuations by taking simple steps to curb their usage; things like not overcrowding refrigerators, turning down furnaces when no one is home, and turning off lights in rooms that aren’t being used.
With files from Slav Kornik.
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