Albertans will pay a lot more for electricity in July

WATCH ABOVE: Albertans will be shelling out more cash this summer for their utility bill. As Carolyn Kury de Castillo reports, it has some MLA’s saying the NDP government needs to re-examine how the we’re doing things in Alberta.

CALGARY – Be prepared to pay a lot more for your electricity this month.

The average Alberta household electricity bill is going up by 25 percent from June.

Enmax customers in Calgary will pay nearly 98 dollars total in July, a 44 percent increase over June.

So it’s going to cost more to escape the heat this month if you’re using air conditioning.

It has some MLA’s saying the NDP government needs to re-examine how we’re doing things in Alberta.

“Electricity is a big part of the costs of doing business and in a sense, it’s going to hurt the bottom lines of business just as higher taxes will,” Derek Fildebrandt said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Electricity is a big part of the costs of doing business and in a sense, it's going to hurt the bottom lines of business just as higher taxes will," Derek Fildebrandt said.

The province’s utilities consumer advocate says the increases come after a period of historic low rates and are still below the long-term average.

Alberta has Canada’s only fully deregulated electricity market and the spiking rate has resulted in calls for changes.

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Critics say economic withholding is a strategy where electricity companies intentionally reduce power production, creating a shortage that leads to higher prices.

“I don’t think re-regulating is the answer. I think what we need is a stronger oversight on the industry. We need more competition and I would say we need to eliminate that clause in the policy that allows for economic withholding. This is unacceptable,” Alberta Liberal leader, David Swann said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I don't think re-regulating is the answer. I think what we need is a stronger oversight on the industry. We need more competition and I would say we need to eliminate that clause in the policy that allows for economic withholding. This is unacceptable," Alberta Liberal leader, David Swann said.

The NDP’s election campaign included a commitment to study the issue, before moving toward re-regulation.

Wildrose MLA Derek Fildebrandt says it would be wise to re-examine parts of the system.

“I don’t think going back to the government running the entire system is the answer as well. Deregulation has been a double edge sword,” Fildebrandt said. ‘Big part of the problem is the cost around transmission lines and contracts have been written in such a way, that it becomes profitable just to build the things even if they don’t make economic sense.’

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I don't think going back to the government running the entire system is the answer as well. Deregulation has been a double edge sword," Fildebrandt said. 'Big part of the problem is the cost around transmission lines and contracts have been written in such a way, that it becomes profitable just to build the things even if they don't make economic sense.'

Critics have said the previous Alberta government has approved an “over build” of expensive transmission projects, building too much, too fast.

But interim PC leader Ric McIver is defending the spending.

“Building a new transmission is like buying a new car. The old car will do, the old car will keep going until it won’t. But when you’re stuck on the side of the road it’s not very good,” McIver said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Building a new transmission is like buying a new car. The old car will do, the old car will keep going until it won't. But when you're stuck on the side of the road it's not very good," McIver said.

The provincial utility consumer advocate says spiking rates are common in the summer because of the demand for energy from air conditioner use and maintenance outages at power plants.

The increased rates are expected to remain throughout the summer.

Premier Rachel Notley said late in the election campaign that her party will take a bit of time to study the issue before making a decision on re-regulating  Canada’s only fully deregulated electricity market.

For more information on how the rates will increase for different providers log on to http://www.ucahelps.alberta.ca/ 

The following electricity rates board is from the ‘ucahelps’ website and provides the breakdown of how rates will increase;