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By Eli Ridder

UTILITY RATES IN MEDICINE HAT

Medicine Hat’s interim ‘best-of-market’ electricity rate starts, drops 8 cents

Nov 1, 2023 | 10:15 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – One of the city’s stopgap measures in response to a dramatic rise in electricity costs this year started Wednesday with an 8 cent drop.

The use of a determined “best-of-market rate” in Medicine Hat was approved by city council in October and is in place until next steps are taken starting in December.

This new rate will not exceed a maximum of 11 cents per kilowatt hour or go below a minimum of 7 cents per kilowatt hour under the new policy.

Under the new formula, the electricity rate dropped from $0.18930 per kilowatt hour in October to $0.10900 per kilowatt hour starting November, according to the city.

Utility rates in Medicine Hat timeline

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Residents will be automatically shifted to the interim electricity rate Nov. 1 without having to take any other steps.

Council in September also approved a $33.1 million cost pressure relief program that applied a retroactive discount of $200 to the utility bills of residents for August, September, October and November.

The payments will go to more than 32,459 customers at a total cost of about $26 million. Relief will also go to 3,534 small and medium businesses, which will receive a payment of $1,000 in September and $500 in both October and November, costing $6.1 million.

The city started a third-party review of it’s energy business unit COMCO with the goal of ensuring it is providing the best value for the community. An update on that process is set for the Dec. 4 council meeting.

The natural gas rate default rate is also up $2.784 per gigajoule, up from the previous month of $2.495 per gigajoule.

– with files from Chris Brown.