"Compare Usage in My Area" is an online benchmarking tool that compares your usage with your neighbourhood based on bills issued within the same postal code area on the same day and for the same time period.

Do I use less electricity than my neighbours?

In My Account, customers can select "usage" for kWh consumption comparison or "amount" for dollar value comparison of the bill's "electricity" charges. Variances in results between usage and amount comparisons can indicate electricity use during different Time-of-Use periods or accounts on fixed price retail contracts. Customers for whom Alectra Utilities (formerly PowerStream) is their water/wastewater billing agent can also compare "water" in addition to "electricity".

• Once "usage" or "amount" and a bill date is selected, the tool locates identical accounts, either residential or business. From the bill date data-base the tool searches by 6-character postal code to find a minimum of 30 accounts in the same postal code area. If less than 30 are found, it drops the last character and searches the postal code's first five characters, still looking for 30 accounts. This will continue, dropping the last character and searching for thirty accounts, until only the first three characters of the postal code remain, at which time the tool will use those accounts, regardless of the number.


• From those accounts, the tool takes the highest value within the group and divides it by 16 in order to determine the column interval, therefore the interval will change depending on the selected bill date. The values of the accounts in the group are then placed within the corresponding interval ranges. The customer's account is displayed in the blue bar, the value falling within one of the two adjacent values.


• In the bar chart below, the customer's usage is displayed in comparison to other accounts in the same postal code area.


• The comparison further shows percentages and displays the range that the customer's account falls within, as well as the number of accounts that use less, more and approximately the same.

Register for My Account

In order to access the Compare Usage in My Area tool, you must first register for My Account. You will need your Alectra Utilities account number and last payment amount made to Alectra Utilities. Once registered, you will have full online access to your account data and tools like Compare Usage in My Area.

Compare Usage in My Area ~ sample chart: