City council votes to change electricity fee calculation

With electricity bills soaring over the past year in Calgary, city council has voted in favour of changing the way it calculates the local access fee.

Instead of the fee being tied to the province's regulated rate option which reached record-high pricesin 2023 the city says it's aiming to move to a consumption-based model, charging customers based on how much power they use.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek said the change will bring more long-term stability and predictability for Calgarians.

"It's not the surprise that you see with the volatility of pricing of the regulated rate option," she said.

"It was a revenue stream for us, but the time to focus on Calgarians and their stability is more important right now."

Last year, the city collected an additional $200 million in fees from Calgarians, owing largely to skyrocketing electricity prices.

Under the current local access fee model, the City of Calgary, through Enmax and other retailers, charges 11.11 per cent of the monthly RRO per kilowatt hour consumed, plus 11.11 per cent of transmission and distribution costs for the access fee.

The local access fee works in lieu of a property tax to run power equipment through the city.

Coun. Evan Spencer said the fee has been a point of tension for Calgarians, and that he's glad to see it changing.

"You can look at it through a long time horizon and it kind of averages out. But the fact that we were doing it during the middle of an affordability crisis really is what brought a lot of this conversation to a head."

But Calgarians won't see any savings yet.

The proposed change still needs to be approved by the Alberta Utilities Commission, and even then, it wouldn't take effect until 2027.

"Anytime you go to make a change, you have an awful lot of people sitting around that table that you have to consult with and work with before you can ultimately sign the dotted line," said Spencer.