Overview

We are providing long-term electricity bill relief for Ontarians, including:

  • the Ontario Electricity Rebate, which currently provides a 11.7% rebate to eligible residential customers, small businesses, farms and other customers
  • the Energy Affordability Program, which provides personalized, free electricity-saving measures for eligible participants
  • the Low-Income Energy Assistance Program, which provides emergency help for customers falling behind on their electricity bills
  • the Ontario Electricity Support Program, which provides monthly on-bill credits to eligible low-income customers
  • customized conservation programs for on-reserve First Nation customers, which provide services and energy efficient products to help conserve energy and manage energy costs
  • tax credits for eligible groups
  • 30,000+
    Number of people benefitting from the First Nations Delivery Credit
  • 800,000
    Number of people in rural and remote areas who are benefitting from credits
  • 90%+
    Amount of Ontario electricity that came from emissions-free sources in 2021

Ontario Electricity Rebate (OER)

The Ontario Electricity Rebate (OER) is provided to eligible customers, including:

  • households
  • farms
  • long-term care homes
  • small businesses

The rebate is automatic for most customers and appears on bills as a separate line item.

Effective November 1, 2023, the OER is providing eligible consumers with an 19.3% rebate from the province on the subtotal of their electricity bill.

For questions about eligibility, please contact your electricity distribution company or the Ontario Energy Board.

Credits on your bill

Get credits on your bill through programs based on your location and income.

Most residential consumers, farms and many small businesses in Ontario will receive a reduction on their bill through the Ontario Electricity Rebate. You may also receive further reductions on your bill if you're a customer of:

  • Hydro One (low and medium density customers)
  • Northern Ontario Wires
  • Chapleau Public Utilities Corporation
  • Sioux Lookout Hydro
  • InnPower
  • Atikokan Hydro
  • Algoma Power

The credit you receive will vary depending on your distribution company. Starting November 1, 2019, if you receive support through more than one provincial program, you will also see a separate message that summarizes the total Ontario support provided to help reduce your hydro bill.

Rural or Remote Rate Protection (RRRP)

The RRRP program is designed to support eligible customers in rural or remote areas with electricity costs, where the costs of distributing electricity to these customers are higher.

The RRRP revenue allows rural and remote electricity distributors to reduce the amount they would otherwise have to charge eligible customers for distribution service.

For more information about the RRRP, visit the OEB's website.

First Nations Delivery Credit

Since July 1, 2017, the First Nations Delivery Credit has been applied to the bills of on-reserve First Nation residential customers. This credit is equal to 100% of the delivery charge, or the monthly service charge for utilities that don't have a separate delivery line. This means that each eligible customer saves approximately $60 per month.

Eligible customers don't need to apply for the First Nations Delivery Credit if their local distribution company already exempts them from HST. The credit will automatically be applied to the bill. For customers who are eligible to be HST exempt – but are not registered yet – please contact your local distributor.

Energy Affordability Program

The Energy Affordability Program provides personalized, free electricity-saving measures to help with your home electricity bills. Through the program, participating households can reduce their electricity bills by between $100 and $750 per year, depending on eligibility, and increase their home comfort.

The Energy Affordability Program is available to:

  • Homeowners
  • Tenants (with the consent of building owner or manager)
  • Social housing providers
  • Income-eligible Indigenous people connected to the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO)-controlled electricity grid, including within on-reserve First Nations communities

What the program provides:

  • Participants most in need may qualify for a free energy-needs assessment conducted by a trained energy professional, that will help identify energy-efficient upgrades available for their homes, such as replacement appliances and weather stripping.
  • Other income-eligible participants may qualify for free energy-saving kits customized to meet their energy needs that could include energy-saving timers, faucet aerators and/or clothes drying lines.

Apply for the Energy Affordability Program to receive support.

Low-income Energy Assistance Program (LEAP)

If you're behind on your electricity or natural gas bill and face having your service disconnected, you may qualify for emergency financial help through the Low-income Energy Assistance Program (LEAP). There are also special customer service rules available for low-income households. You need to meet certain criteria to qualify for these programs and apply through an intake agency.

Ontario Electricity Support Program (OESP)

The Ontario Electricity Support Program (OESP) provides low-income households with support on their electricity bills.

Apply online to get credits on your bill of $35 to $75 per month through the Ontario Electricity Support Program (OESP).

You could get additional credits (between $52 to $113 per month) if you:

  • use electric heating
  • use certain medical devices that use a lot of electricity
  • are Indigenous or a family member living in your household is Indigenous

Peak Perks Program

The Peak Perks program provides a rebate to households for adjusting their thermostat to conserve energy during peak demand periods in the summer months.

Rebates are provided to customers as promotional prepaid credit cards. Get a $75 promotional prepaid credit card by enrolling. You can also receive an additional $20 promotional prepaid credit card for each additional year you stay enrolled starting in 2024.

You may be eligible to enrol if you:

  • use central air conditioning or a heat pump unit to cool your home
  • have an ecobee, Honeywell Home, Google Nest, Emerson, Alarm.com or Lux smart thermostat installed in your home

For more information and to find out how to apply, visit saveonenergy.ca/PeakPerks.

In addition to Peak Perks, Hydro One customers also have the option to enroll in the myEnergy Rewards program directly through their utility.

myEnergy Rewards provides a $75 reward in exchange for providing Hydro One the ability to adjust your smart thermostat during short peak energy demand periods – at most 15 days a year. During these periods the temperature in your home will change automatically – a few degrees, making sure you still feel comfortable.

Hydro One customers looking for information and to find out how to apply, visit myEnergy Rewards.

Clean Home Heating Initiative

The Clean Home Heating Initiative provides a rebate to qualified residential customers to install an air-source heat pump unit with smart controls.

You may be eligible to participate if you:

  • are a residential customer in London, St. Catharines, Peterborough, Sault Ste. Marie, Barrie, Whitby, Ajax or Pickering
  • use a natural gas furnace to heat your home
  • are on Time-of-Use (TOU) electricity pricing

This model for a household hybrid heating system with smart controls could:

  • reduce carbon emissions
  • lower energy bills

For more information and to find out how to apply, visit Enbridge’s website.

 

Home Efficiency Rebate Plus (HER+)

The Home Efficiency Rebate Plus (HER+) program is helping more Ontarians save energy at home by providing rebates towards eligible retrofits such as home insulation, windows and doors, heat pumps and renewable energy systems. This co-ordinated program is offered through a partnership between Enbridge Gas and Natural Resources Canada’s (NRCan) Canada Greener Homes Grant.

Enbridge Gas and NRCan do not solicit participation in the HER+ program through telephone calls or door-to-door visits. Registered Energy Advisors will only come to your home when you have booked an appointment for an energy assessment for the HER+ program through a Service Organization. Visit the Enbridge Gas website for a list of Service Organizations certified by NRCan to deliver the program.  

 

Tax credits

For seniors and people with low-to-moderate income

Get up to $1,065 for the 2021 benefit year in tax credits if you or your family have low-to-moderate income and up to $1,247 if you're an eligible senior.

To apply for the Ontario Energy and Property Tax Credit:

  1. download and fill out the ON-BEN application form(PDF)
  2. file your income tax to see if you are eligible to receive the credit

If you are eligible for the Ontario Energy and Property Tax Credit, you will receive the credit for previous years even if you file your taxes late.

For people in Northern Ontario

Northern Ontario residents can receive a tax credit of up to $158 per year for individuals and up to $242 per year for families, including single parents, for the 2021 benefit year.

To apply for the Northern Ontario Energy Credit:

  1. download and fill out the ON-BEN application form(PDF)
  2. file your income tax return to see if you are eligible to receive the credit

If you are eligible for the Northern Ontario Energy Credit, you will receive the credit for previous years even if you file your taxes late.

Programs for Indigenous Communities

The First Nations Conservation Program

The First Nations Conservation Program helps qualified on-reserve First Nations customers improve the energy-efficiency of their homes and manage their energy use more effectively. The program is offered by the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) and is delivered free of charge to eligible customers.

To give communities more time to participate, the IESO relaunched all First Nation conservation programs. For more information on the status of these programs, visit Save on Energy.

The province offers a suite of conservation and demand management programs to on-reserve First Nations communities, that are delivered by the IESO. They provide incentives and tools to help customers manage their electricity usage and costs. These programs include:

Conservation on the Coast

The Conservation on the Coast program offers weatherization upgrades in three communities connected to the Five Nations Energy transmission line (Fort Albany First Nation, Attawapiskat First Nation, and Kashechewan First Nation).

Remote First Nations Pilot

The Remote First Nations Pilot program offers home and small business upgrades to four communities to be connected to the Wataynikaneyap transmission project in northwest Ontario (Kasabonika Lake First Nation, Wunnumin Lake First Nation, North Caribou Lake First Nation, and Sachigo Lake First Nation).

First Nation Community Building Retrofit Program

Starting in Fall 2021, the First Nation Community Building Retrofit Program will provide up to $100,000 per community for eligible customized energy efficiency projects in Band-owned commercial and institutional buildings.

Remote First Nation Program

The Remote First Nation Program will extend service provided under the Remote First Nations Pilot program to 12 more soon-to-be connected First Nation reserves.

How we automatically keep your bill stable

Hydro One dividend

The Hydro One dividend supports programs to keep your bill low. The Province of Ontario is Hydro One's largest shareholder and receives a quarterly dividend that directly supports Ontario's electricity rate relief programs, credits and rebates.

When Hydro One's board of directors declares a dividend on common shares, all shareholders of the company as of a certain date are eligible to receive a dividend based on the number of common shares they own. Ontario owns approximately 47% of Hydro One shares.

In the fiscal year 2019-20 Ontario received $291 million in dividends from Hydro One. This equals approximately $60 per electricity customer that benefits from rebates or credits on their bill, in 2019-2020.