TORONTO, April 28, 2026 – Ontario will switch to summer time-of-use electricity pricing on May 1, with 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays becoming the highest-priced period. For Chinese families who work from home, care for children during the day, or handle household chores while at home, electricity bills are most likely to rise after May if they continue using the same midday routine for laundry, dishwashing, and cooking.
According to the current rates published by the Ontario Energy Board, the summer time-of-use price is 20.3 cents per kilowatt-hour during the on-peak period, 15.7 cents during mid-peak, and 9.8 cents during off-peak. In other words, many households that are used to doing laundry, drying clothes, cooking, and running air conditioning around midday may feel the cost increase more clearly after May 1 if they keep the same schedule. Residents may also be more likely to confuse weekday pricing with weekend pricing. However, the Ontario Energy Board has made clear that, in both summer and winter, weekends and statutory holidays remain off-peak all day.
For many households, the easiest thing to overlook is not the rate itself, but the fact that daily habits have not been adjusted to match the new schedule. If someone is often home during the day, if meals are prepared before children return home, or if seniors are used to doing laundry or running the dishwasher around noon, those habits may now fall directly into the most expensive period. When the bill arrives, residents may feel that their overall electricity use did not rise much, but the issue may not be how much power they used, but when they used it.
Ontario households are not limited to time-of-use pricing alone. The Ontario Energy Board currently allows residents to choose among time-of-use pricing, tiered pricing, and ultra-low overnight pricing. Under tiered pricing, residential households in summer pay the first rate on the first 600 kilowatt-hours each month, and a second rate on usage above that level. Under ultra-low overnight pricing, the lowest rate applies from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., but the highest rate applies from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays. For households where someone is regularly at home during the day and midday electricity use is hard to avoid, time-of-use pricing may not necessarily be the best fit.
The Ontario Energy Board also provides an electricity bill calculator that allows residents to compare estimated costs under time-of-use, tiered, and ultra-low overnight pricing based on their own usage habits. For families with children, households with seniors, or homes that need air conditioning during the day for longer periods, running the numbers first is usually safer than relying on guesswork alone. Low-income households that need bill relief can separately apply for Ontario’s electricity support programs. This is not a new summer subsidy, but part of the province’s existing regular electricity assistance program.
For many Chinese families, a more common real-life situation is continuing to follow winter habits after May begins: doing laundry, drying clothes, washing dishes, and cooking around midday on weekdays, while also using air conditioning more often as the weather gets warmer. The bill then rises, but the household does not immediately realize that the peak period has shifted back to midday. For families where someone is home during the day and it is not practical to move all chores to the evening, it becomes even more important to compare different billing plans instead of focusing only on a single time period.
For households staying on time-of-use pricing starting in May, there are three practical steps worth taking now: first, remember that 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays has become the most expensive period again; second, try to move flexible chores such as laundry, dishwashing, and drying to the evening or the weekend; and third, if midday electricity use is genuinely hard to avoid, use the Ontario Energy Board’s comparison tool to see whether time-of-use, tiered pricing, or ultra-low overnight pricing is the better fit. That approach is more practical than waiting for the bill to arrive and only then looking back at the schedule. (LJI by Yuanyuan)
