Medicine Hat News
The cost of electricity will dip in October for city utility customers as the market rate falls below a price cap set by the provincial government.
Natural gas will rise slightly compared to September, but remains at near all-time lows, according to a schedule released Monday by the City of Medicine Hat utility department.
The commodity rate for local customers buying power will be 6.621 cents per kilowatt hour.
That’s about two-10ths of a cent lower than what appeared on last month’s bill, but 1.5 cents lower than a market calculation that enacted the rate cap in three months over the summer.
The market rate in September was 8.05-cents but customers were only charged the maximum of 6.8-cents; the difference paid from carbon levy funds.
Gas makes a slight rise at the start of colder weather, moving up seven-cents to $1.322 per gigajoule this month.
Local rates are based on the average commodity price charged across Alberta. For gas, Direct Energy had the high rate or $1.322 and AltaGas the low rate of $1.254.
Of four comparable power distributors, Direct was at 7.031-cents, folled by Epcor (Edmonton) at 6.577-cents, Epcor (rural) 6.463, and Enmax at 6.414-cents.
