Power prices remain well below provincial floating rate
By Medicine Hat News on June 4, 2024.
@MedicineHatNews Power prices in Medicine Hat this month will be about one third less than the floating rate in the rest of the province – a figure on which the city based its default pricing up until last fall. Medicine Hat’s quarterly price for power in June will be 7.95 cents per kilowatt hour – down slightly from 8.02 cents in May due to adjustments for a 2023 rate cap program recovery. That compares to an average Regulated Rate Option from four large power providers in Alberta of 11.3 cents in total for June. Those retailers – Enmax, Ecpor and Direct Energy – will charge between 2.9 and 3.9 cents per kilowatt hour to recover costs for the deferral program. Medicine Hat’s rate edged lower and is added to the bare electricity charge that is now determined by the forecast wholesale power price in the Alberta power market. That rate is 6.6 -cents per kilowatt hour, and is adjusted up to 7 cents to fall within the 7- to 11-cent minimum and maximum price range set by council in late 2023. RRO average energy cost was 7.84 cents per kilowatt average. The local rate, applied to all customers, will be reset when the third quarter begins on July 1. Natural gas rates also fell slightly in Medicine Hat, to $1.225 per gigajoule in June, based on the city’s cost to purchase gas for resale plus a 7-cent premium. The price sat at $1.54 in May. Default rates in the rest of the province were $1.05 from Direct Energy and $1.25 from Apex. 13-12
