Monday March 17, 2025 | VANCOUVER, BC
News analysis by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
BC Hydro President Chris O’Riley today says that the BC’s electric utility has “heard” the public regarding the two-tier billing rate for electricity usage.
He revealed that during the media portion of an announcement with Energy and Climate Solutions Minister Adrian Dix in Vancouver.
A new flat rate is BC Hydro’s response to concerns that the threshold between Step 1 to Step 2 billing rates (one being lower, and the second being higher) will address consumer demand for more affordable billing.
Steps 1 and 2:
Currently the Step 1 rate is $0.1097 per kWh (just over 10 cents) and Step 2 is $0.1408 per kWh (just over 14 cents).
That is on top of a Basic Charge at $0.2253 per day (regardless of energy used).
The amount of the new flat rate has not yet been announced, but O’Riley said today that is will be blended, i.e. fall in between the current step levels.
However, small households may have seen most of their usage at the lower Step 1, and will now have to pay a higher flat rate from the start of each billing period.
Thinking about affordability:
For affordability considerations, it would help smaller households and those who try to conserve electricity if the point at which Step 2 kicks in would be extended. This would probably help more households than paying a flat blended rate that will immediately be higher than Step 1.
None of the BC Hydro programs that sound helpful are really all that helpful.
- The Crisis Fund (which just got a top-up from the BC Government) only helps people once their in the most dire of circumstances — to qualify for help the household account must have already received a disconnect notice.
- Spreading out household bill payments in winter across a longer payment period may incur fees that are not always advised to the customer. If the customer asks with the right lingo, i.e. a payment schedule, then interest is not charged to the customer (though it sounds like the province is billed for the interest).
- The time of day program that was floated last year really only works for people who shift their lives to an active-at-night lifestyle (e.g. doing laundry in the wee hours of the morning, and charging electric vehicles overnight). Otherwise the fee structure will penalize use in regular evening hours when many families are making the highest level of demand on their electricity usage.
- The BC Electricity Affordability Credit did provide some help, but was spread out over a period of one year.
In this context, there is still room for better ‘people-first’ NDP government demands on the billing strategies and mindset of BC Hydro.
Rates going up April 1, 2025:
Meanwhile, BC Hydro residential billing rates are going up 3.75% on April 1, 2025 and again another 3.75% on April 1, 2026. (More to come on that.)
The cost increase is due to increasing population growth and the development and maintenance of electricity generating infrastructure.
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NEWS SECTIONS: BC HYDRO | ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY | AFFORDABILITY