Ivano Merluzzi/Dreamstime.com

By Eli J. Ridder

Medicine Hat utility rates continue to drop as summer begins

Jul 2, 2024 | 1:50 PM

Medicine Hat’s natural gas rates continued to drop while electricity rates saw a slight decrease for the month of July, according to cost numbers released by the city on Tuesday.

The default rate for natural gas is now at $0.770 per gigajoule, a 37 per cent decrease from June’s rate of $1.225 per gigajoule.

City council in November amended the gas utility bylaw in order to provide customers with a single natural gas rate starting in 2024.

The July electricity billed rate for residential and small to medium businesses is set at $0.07842 per kilowatt hour, a slight decrease from the $0.07946 per kilowatt hour last month.

Graphic by CHAT News with data from the City of Medicine Hat.

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Council in October directed the city to use a single best-of-market rate for residential, farm, small and medium commercial, unmetered services and rental lighting customers that would not exceed 11 cents per kilowatt hour or dip below a minimum rate of seven cents.

The best-of-market rate, launched in November, was put in place as a stopgap measure in response to a dramatic rise in electricity costs in 2023.

Longterm, a third-party review of the city’s energy business unit COMCO is ongoing with the goal of ensuring it is providing the best value for the community. The results of that review is expected back later in 2024.

The July billed electricity rate for large commercial, industrial and street lighting customers was set at $0.08748 per kilowatt hour, an increase over the $0.07841 June rate.

‘Going Green’ charge

Customers also have a “Going Green” surcharge on their bill.

This surcharge is for renewable energy purchased for residential, farm, small and medium commercial customers.

The surcharge is calculated monthly to recover costs incurred to purchase renewable energy.

The Going Green surcharge for May is $0.0035 per kilowatt hour, amounting to a small increase over the $0.0030 rate in June and May.