Achi news desk-
The Alberta government is changing existing legislation to lower utility bills in Calgary.
Electricity customers are currently charged a local access fee, which is used to compensate a municipality for using its property to provide electricity services.
About 200 municipalities currently charge such a fee to electricity providers, but how the municipality calculates the fee varies across the province.
The fees, which cannot exceed 20 percent of the delivery charge for electricity and 35 percent of the delivery charge for natural gas, must be approved by the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) and are regulation by the Municipal Government Act.
Edmonton and Calgary have agreements with Council-owned subsidiaries, which exempt them from requiring AUC approval.
Edmonton follows a usage-based calculation for its fees, while Calgary bases theirs partly on market rates.
As a result, Calgary customers can see fees vary wildly, depending on the price of electricity or gas.
The government says Calgarians paid an average of $240 in local access fees in 2023 compared to the $75 paid by Edmontonians during the same period.
The province plans to amend the Municipal Government Act to ensure that the AUC will have oversight of all local access fees, and prevent municipalities from charging fees based on variable costs of electricity or gas.
The changes will take effect immediately.
Based on the numbers provided by the government, the average Calgarian could save $13.75 per month.
The province also announced on Friday that it would change the name of the Regulated Rate Option (RRO) for electricity customers to the Rate of Last Resort.
