Medicine Hat utility rates will rise for June

By Collin Gallant on June 2, 2018.

Medicine Hat News

Utility prices for natural gas in June have risen from near historic lows while the cost of electricity will also edge higher, according to rates posted by the City of Medicine Hat on Friday.

Gas rises to $1.567 per gigajoule for residential and small to medium sized commercial consumers. That is up from 79.6-cents in May, which marked a new low for the city-owned utility.

Electricity rose about three-10ths of a cent to sit at 5.795-cents per kilowatt hour for the new month.

Both rates are determined by the average of regulated rates offered across the province.

The high price for gas was $2.59 from AltaGas, and the low 54.4-cents from Direct Energy. That wide difference is the result of a true-up mechanism that companies can enact when their previous month’s price forecasts are off.

The local power price is lower than three of the four other comparable rates.

Direct Energy’s regulated rate for June is 6.349-cents, and Epcor’s rate both inside Edmonton and in rural areas are 5.928-cents and 5.842-cents, respectively.

The Enmax rate is 5.62-cents.

Large commercial and industrial customers without a contract price in Medicine Hat pay a default rate of the previous month’s Alberta Pool price plus a 2-cent premium. That rate in May was 8.38-cents per kilowatts hour.

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