Find Electricity and Power expertise in Canada

Canada is the largest producer of hydroelectric power in the world. As a result, hydroelectric power is the greatest source of electricity in Canada representing around 60% of the nation’s supply in 2006. Alongside this, nuclear and coal power provide roughly 15 and 20% respectively. Due to its vast scale, Canada relies on 160,000 kilometres of high-voltage lines to distribute its electricity. For the most part, these transmission lines follow a north-south pattern, moving from northern generation sites to markets in the south. The Canadian Constitution stipulates that electricity is primarily under the jurisdiction of its provinces and so provision of electricity runs along provincial lines. Within each province, there is a mix of private and local government-owned corporations. In most of the provinces, these government-owned utilities are responsible for the building and upkeep of transmission lines. However, some provinces have been restructuring their utilities by splitting them into separate generation, transmission and supply companies. In 1999, the province of Ontario chose to split Ontario Hydro into Ontario Power Generation and Hydro One. The upshot of recent restructuring is that transmission lines are now more open to access, allowing buyers to purchase electricity from the most competitive generators. In 2007, Quebec was the largest producer of electric power, generating around 30% of all electricity and almost 50% of Canada’s hydroelectric power. Electricity is also a major export; the average value of annual electricity exports from Canada to the US between 2005 and 2009 was US$3.0 billion. Quebec, Manitoba and British Columbia supplied most of these exports because they rely primarily on hydroelectric generation, which is conducive to storage and export.