Yukoners coping with shockingly high electric bills after cold spell in December

ATCO Electric Yukon says there are options for Yukoners who are struggling to pay their electric bills, after some customers said they were shocked to see how much they owe.

A weeks-long cold spell in December that placed a significant strain on the Yukon’s grid, is now putting customers in a tough spot after they received significantly higher electric bills last month.

“Usually in the colder months I pay $500 or lower, but over the last cold snap it went up double,” said customer Pat Pelletier. She said she’s just scrapping by after receiving her most recent bill. 

Another customer, J.P. Bergeron, said his electric bill increased by 15 per cent.

“I'm a retired man so my paycheque every month is limited. So when everything increases, something has to go.”

Jay Massie, ATCO’s vice-president of northern development and Indigenous relations said customers who are struggling can call ATCO’s customer service advisors to arrange payment plans. 

“That’s really customer-specific,” Massie said. “Each customer will work with a service adviser just to get on some kind of payment plan so they can get through this high electrical usage.”

ATCO also offers a budget payment plan for customers, Massie said. The plan looks at customer’s average electricity usage for the year and allows them to make equal monthly payments to avoid high winter prices.

However, Massie said the intake period for that program is in April and May, which means customers who are currently struggling to pay their most recent bill, won’t see any relief from that program.

During the cold snap, the territory’s minister responsible for Yukon Energy, Ted Laking, asked Yukoners to scale back their energy use by shutting off lights and using appliances during off-peak hours. Yukon Energy said in cutting back power consumption, Yukoners helped prevent rolling blackouts.

However, customers can’t see how cutting back their consumption affected their most recent bill. Right now, ATCO doesn’t provide a break-down of electricity usage and how it contributes to the total on their customers’ bills. 

Massie said providing those details would be difficult for the utility’s approximately 25,000 customers. Instead, customers can monitor their electricity usage by reading their metres, he said.

“We have customers that read their meter at the same time each day so they can see how much electricity they used in a day,” he said.

In Ontario, customers can save money on their utility bills by adjusting when they use electricity. The Ontario Energy Boards offers time of use rates, where rates are lower during mid and off-peak hours.