With the long, cold winter we’ve had this year, customers are noticing higher electricity bills. We’ve had a few questions about the delivery charge of the bill, and are providing this information to help customers understand the services they receive for the rates they are paying.

Did you know that a portion of the delivery charge is variable? This means you have some control over this part of the bill. For Kingston Hydro residential customers, $15.65 of the delivery line is fixed, the rest depends on how much you consume. The more you conserve, the lower the delivery charge will be. We have staff to help with that: Contact conservation@utilitieskingston.com, or check out the electricity conservation section of our website.

Delivery Line, Explained

This line of the bill shows the cost of delivering electricity from generating stations across the Province to your home or business via the high voltage (transmission) and low voltage (distribution) electricity systems.
All the charges on the Delivery line of the bill are approved by the Ontario Energy Board. Some of the charges are fixed at a set amount per month. Others are variable and increase or decrease depending on the amount of electricity you have used. Delivery charges include:

• Customer Service Charge: A fixed monthly charge intended to allow your utility to recover the costs associated with meter reading, billing, customer service and account maintenance, and general utility operations.
• Distribution Charge: A variable per kilowatt-hour (kWh) charge intended to allow your utility to recover the cost of building and maintaining its low-voltage distribution system, including overhead and underground distribution lines, poles, and transformer stations.
• Transmission Charge: A variable per kWh charge intended to allow your utility to recover the charges it pays towards the operation and maintenance of the high-voltage transmission system that carries electricity from generating stations to the utility.

Learn more about your electricity bill or view the Kingston Hydro Tariff of Rates and Charges.