The Debt Retirement Charge has been removed from residential Hydro bills. Effective January 1, 2016, all electricity users with a residential-rate class account are exempt from the Debt Retirement Charge (DRC).
If your service is under a Residential-Rate Class, the Debt Retirement Charge has been removed from your bill. However, if you have a farm and home on the same bill, you may be under a General Service class, and you need to apply to have the DRC removed from the home use portion of electricity.
The Ontario Ministry of Finance has more information about the process, at http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/guides/drc/110.html.
Most rural utilities have their own declaration form, usually searchable, under a Forms Section, or Residential Service section. Here is a link to the Hydro One form: http://www.hydroone.com/MyHome/MyAccount/UnderstandMyBill/Pages/DebtRetirementCharge.aspx
Users with a general service-rate class account that provides electricity to one or more ‘eligible residential units’ will also be eligible for a DRC exemption. The eligible exemption is up to 1,500 kilowatt hours (kWh) per month, multiplied by the number of eligible residential units included on the account. To claim this DRC exemption, users with a general service-rate class account must provide their electricity distributor with notice of the number of eligible residential units included in the account. The start of the exemption for these users depends on when the notice is received by the electricity distributor.
The DRC will remain on all other electricity users’ bills for electricity consumed before April 1, 2018. The DRC will not be payable on electricity consumed after March 31, 2018.
For more information on these changes, please contact OFA at info@ofa.on.ca or 1.800.668.3276.