Hydro, Gas and Spark Spread in the USA
Enclosed please find the most recent price survey for the US market in a pdf here. As you can see it is from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) latest published survey for September 2017. I do this to compare prices and also explain the hydro market in Ontario. Along with lower prices in the USA you will notice that the rates are broken down by residential, commercial, Industrial etc with much lower rates for the Industrial and the transportation sectors. This is in contrast to Ontario where residential and all other users basically pay the same rate. In fact, in Ontario the total amount of hydro consumes by both residential/and all other users is 50/50. This is why, Ontario basically prices it hydro on the total demand across all different types of users. In the USA it is clear that residential uses pay a higher rate to in effect subsidize larger Industrial/Commercial users. Another point is that the comparison is easy to follow as the price is in kwh (the same as Ontario and Canada)and is calculated as total cost (including taxes, distribution etc/total kilowatt hours etc.
I am also including from the EIA the price of Industrial natural gas here in a pdf. Here the units of measurement are in terms of cubic feet (or therms) which accounts for the difference between the metric system which we use vs. the Imperial system of measurement which the US is on.
Conversion Chart
One therm=one CCF= 100,000 BTU’s =2.83 cubic meters or one cubic meter =.3697 therms so10 therms=1,000 cubic feet=28.3168 meters of gas
Let me give you an example. Take a look at the last price of gas as per October 2017at $3.82 USD dollars per Thousand cubic feet. This translates to 28.3168 meters of as 28.3168 X.29 (the current price per meter in Ontario) which = $8.21 CDN or $6.57 USD which is enclosed in a pdf here Thus we are paying in Ontario in $USD $6.57-3.82 or $2.75 USD more for the equivalent amount of natural gas.
I have also enclosed a pdf which respect to the spark spread here in the USA for information purposes only as I do not carry on business in the USA.