Summertime hydro rates to drop, Ontario Energy Board announces

Hydro rates for the averagehouseholdwill drop by about 17per cent effective May 1, the Ontario Energy Board announced Thursday.

The slash in the price of electricity comesafter Premier Kathleen Wynne's government announced its plan for across-the-board cuts to hydro bills. It will be the biggest one-time drop ever in hydro prices in Ontario.

• Liberals pledge hydro rate cuts will help small businesses
• Wynne reveals plan to cut hydro bills by 17 per cent

The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) sets the per-kilowatt-hour prices every six months.

The Wynne government has promised that after this cut in electricity costs, prices will not rise above the rate of inflation for the next four years.

Last summer, rates went up 2.5 per cent, something the OEB blamedon lower-than-expected electricity usage during the mild winter of 2015-16. It contributed to growing voter anger over hydro prices, which nearly doubled in the space of a decade.