Live market data
Ontario price comparison
The Ontario zonal price from both of IESO's markets on one axis, in CAD per MWh: the day-ahead clear and the real-time price that followed.
Fetching the latest published forecast…
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The Ontario zonal price from both of IESO's markets on one axis, in CAD per MWh: the day-ahead clear and the real-time price that followed.
How do Ontario's day-ahead and real-time prices compare?
IESO hub prices peaks at C$103 on Fri, 7 PM, against a low of C$32.96 — a swing of C$70.21 across the window. Ontario zonal real-time price is the heaviest area at 94 CAD/MWh.
Every line above, and who produced it.
Observed or settled values for the plotted intervals. Source: IESO.
A cleared day-ahead market result, not an operator price forecast. Source: IESO.
Each day of the window on its own.
Every hour of the window, shaded by load.
| 0 | 6 | 12 | 18 | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fri, 10/9 |
| Market | Peak (CAD/MWh) | Peak hour | Low (CAD/MWh) | Average (CAD/MWh) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario zonal real-time price | 94 | Fri, 3 PM | 16 | 45 |
| Ontario zonal day-ahead | 103 | Fri, 7 PM | 33 | 50 |
| Forecast | Avg miss (CAD/MWh) | Avg miss % | Bias | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario zonal day-ahead | $8.03 | 16.1% | +$5.59 | 20 |
Each forecast frozen as it stood 24 hours ago, then scored against every hour that has settled since. Smaller is better on every column. Bias is signed: positive means the forecast ran high.
| Series | Produced by | Method | Horizon | Issued |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario zonal day-ahead price (IESO auction) | IESO | IESO day-ahead hourly and real-time five-minute Ontario zonal price; cleared market result | Day-ahead clears once daily for the next day; real-time settles every five minutes | Clearing time not exposed by this feed |
IESO publishes cleared prices, not forecasts, so no band is shown. The day-ahead to real-time spread reflects demand and supply changes, outages, intertie schedules and congestion; this comparison does not assign cause.
Since the market renewal in May 2025, IESO prices energy at nodes and settles Ontario's non-dispatchable load at the Ontario zonal price, a load-weighted average. It is the price this page plots in both markets.
The day-ahead market is a financially binding auction for the next day; the real-time market clears every five minutes. They are kept as separate series and never blended, and the day-ahead line runs into tomorrow because those hours have already cleared.
Prices are CAD per MWh as IESO publishes them, not converted. Compare them with US prices only through a dated exchange rate.
curl "https://askthegrid.com/api/v1/grid/series?iso=IESO&metric=dam&node=ONTARIO"
Connect your agent to mcp.askthegrid.com and this forecast is a tool call away — the same host Claude and ChatGPT connectors already use.
No. The Hourly Ontario Energy Price ended with the old market on April 30, 2025. The Ontario zonal price is the renewed market's reference price.
Ontario loads. Generators settle at the locational price of their own node.
Canadian dollars per megawatt-hour, as IESO publishes them.
Plotted window Oct 9, 3:00 PM EDT → Oct 12, 12:00 AM EDT. Real-time collected hourly; day-ahead once per day.
| Sat, 10/10 |
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| Sun, 10/11 |
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| Mon, 10/12 |
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Darkest cells are the tightest hours. The window peaks at 103 CAD/MWh on Fri, 7 PM, local to the market.