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By Chris Brown

City’s new energy price options take effect Jan. 1; rates released for January

Dec 29, 2022 | 2:05 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – When the calendar flips to 2023 on Sunday, the City of Medicine Hat will flip to new electricity and natural gas pricing plans.

The new system was approved by city council in November and offers three options to customers.

A regulated rate option or “default” rate that changes each month, a 12-month fixed contract that customers can opt into each quarter and a variable contract calculated monthly and based on daily market prices

The city says that since council passed the new system, the number of customers on to the fixed rate has risen from 59 per cent to about 79 per cent for electricity and from 57 per cent to 68 per cent for natural gas.

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Josh Barclay, energy marketing specialist with City of Medicine Hat, says the fixed rates offer quite a discount at the moment and provide peace of mind.

“Having a fixed rate can offer some security in the sense that you have an idea of what your commodity utilities are going to be month to month versus taking market rates where you might see some fluctuation month to month with the variable rate option and our RRO {regulated rate option},” he explains.

If you’re not on the fixed rate plan or have been for more than six months you must sign-up or renew before the end of the year or you will return to the default monthly rate. The city says online forms will be honoured up to 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 31.

January rates released

The January rates were released today by the city.

The regulated natural gas rate, based on the weighted average 120-day buying window price for the forecasted volume, is $6.117 per gigajoule. Last month the rate was $6.1540.

The first-quarter fixed rate is $6.607.

The variable rate to be offered is based on the AECO (Alberta Energy Company) 5A market reference price plus $1 per GJ. The January rate will be released on Feb. 1, 2023.

For electricity, the regulated rate is 28.639 cents per kilowatt hour, up from the previous month of 22.990 cents per kilowatt hour.

The City of Medicine Hat calculates the Monthly Reference Price based on the average of the rates using the four Regulated Rate Option providers approved by the Alberta Utilities Commission under section 103(2) of the Electric Utilities Act.

On Dec. 15, 2022, the Government of Alberta passed The Regulated Rate Option Stability Act through Bill 2: Inflation Relief Statutes Amendment Act which places a temporary price ceiling of 13.500 cents per kilowatt hour in January, February and March 2023 for Albertans who purchase power on the Regulated Rate Option (RRO). The cost difference between the temporary ceiling and the calculated monthly regulated rate will be deferred and then charged over a 21-month recovery period from April 1, 2023, to Dec. 31, 2024.

The January fixed rate for City of Medicine Hat customers is set at 17.653 cents.

The variable rate is based on the monthly average Alberta Power Pool price as established and published by the Alberta Electrical System Operator (AESO) plus 0.02 cents. The January variable rate will be released Feb. 1, 2023.