The electricity sector in Canada has played a significant role in the economic and political life of the country since the late 19th century. The sector is organized along provincial and territorial lines. In a majority of provinces, large government-owned integrated public utilities play a leading role in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. Ontario and Alberta have created electricity markets in the last decade to increase investment and competition in this sector of the economy.
Hydroelectricity accounted for 60% of all electric generation in Canada in 2018, making Canada the world's third-largest producer of hydroelectricity after China and Brazil. Since 1960, large hydroelectric projects, especially in Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, British Columbia, and Manitoba have significantly increased the country's generation capacity.
The second-largest single source of power (15% of the total) is nuclear power, with several plants in Ontario generating more than half of that province's electricity, and one generator in New Brunswick. This makes Canada the world's sixth-largest producer of electricity generated by nuclear power, producing 95 TWh in 2017.
Fossil fuels generate 18% of Canadian electricity, about half as coal (7% of the total) and the remainder a mix of natural gas and oil. Only three provinces use coal for electricity generation. Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia rely on coal for less than half their generation while other provinces and territories burn none for electricity. Alberta and Saskatchewan also use a substantial amount of natural gas. Remote communities including all of Nunavut and much of the Northwest Territories produce most of their electricity from diesel generators, at high economic and environmental cost. The federal government has set up initiatives to reduce dependence on diesel-fired electricity. However, in 2018, the NWT generated 70% of their electricity from hydroelectric dams and 4% from wind. In Nunavut, solar generates a small amount of electricity through small installations and projects.
Non-hydro renewables are a fast-growing portion of the total, at 7% in 2016.
Canada has substantial electricity trade with the neighbouring United States amounting to 72 TWh exports and 10 TWh imports in 2017.
Canadian homes, offices and factories are large users of electricity, or hydro, as it is often called in many regions of Canada. In 2007, Canadian per capita electricity consumption was among the highest in the world, with a yearly average of 17 MWh. In 2017, the average annual electricity consumption per capita in Canada dropped to 14.6 MWh. Quebec had the highest annual consumption at 21 MWh per capita, while Nunavut had the least, 6.1 MWh per capita. In 2018, electricity generation accounted for 9% of Canada's emissions, a 32% decrease from 1990.
History
Electricity has been significant for Canada's economy and politics since the late 19th century. In the 1890s, three firms competed to develop the Canadian Niagara Falls. After the First World War, the provincial utilities were created. The public companies focused on rural electrification and hydroelectric development. In 1952, Canada's first nuclear power plant was built, and in 1968, the North American Energy Reliability Council(NERC) was founded
Organization The electricity sector in Canada is organized along provincial and territorial lines as part of their jurisdiction over natural resources. All provinces and territories have set up utilities boards and regulate transmission and distribution rates.
The liberalization process of the 1990s changed some parameters such as the unbundling of generation, transmission and distribution functions of incumbent utilities in order to foster a competitive wholesale market or, as in the cases of large exporters like Quebec and British Columbia, to comply with Order 888 of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and other U.S. market rules. Most provincial governments still maintain a strong financial stake as operators in the electrical markets.
In a majority of provinces and territories, utilities are vertically integrated Crown corporations operating as regulated monopolies. This is by and large the case in New Brunswick, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Nunavut. A second model involves a Crown corporation as a large generator or in transmission, alongside an investor-owned distributor, as in Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, the Northwest Territories and, to a lesser degree, Prince Edward Island. Nova Scotia has granted a virtual monopoly to Nova Scotia Power, when it divested its investments in the sector in 1992. However, there remain half a dozen small public electric distributors - the Municipal Electric Utilities of Nova Scotia who have the right to buy power from other parties, or generate their own. NS has a feed-in tariff program to encourage smaller generators.
Two provinces, Ontario and Alberta, have deregulated their electric industry to different degrees over the last decade. Both provinces operate electricity markets, but there are significant differences between the two systems. The Ontario market is a hybrid, with the Ontario Power Authority (now merged with the IESO) "contracting for supply, integrated system planning, and regulated pricing for much of Ontario's generation and load". In Alberta, the generation business is competitive, while transmission and distribution are rate-regulated.
A number of municipalities operate local distribution systems. Some of them, such as EPCOR in Edmonton, are also significant players in the power generation business, under their name or through their control of publicly traded companies.
The federal government, through the National Energy Board, issues permits for inter-provincial and international power lines. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has jurisdiction over nuclear safety. Ottawa and the provinces share jurisdiction over environmental issues such as air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Also, major hydroelectric developments trigger federal environmental assessment processes, as the Government of Canada has the power to regulate waterways and fisheries.
Energy-intensive businesses, such as the aluminium smelting and pulp and paper industries have made significant investments over time in power generation. One such company is Rio Tinto Alcan, which owns and operates 7 hydroelectric generating stations in Quebec and British Columbia, with a combined installed capacity of 3,300 MW.
In recent years, partial or complete deregulation of the wholesale generation business have created a number of independent power producers, who build and operate power plants and sell over the long-term, through power purchase agreements — with terms of up to 35 years — and in day-ahead and hour-ahead transactions, where such markets exist.
Generation
In 2013, Canada generated 651.8 terawatt-hours (TWh), a 10% increase since 2003. Approximately 822 generating stations are scattered from the Atlantic to the Pacific, for a nameplate capacity of 130,543 MW. The 100 largest generating stations in Canada have a combined capacity of 100,829 MW. In comparison, the total installed capacity of Canada was 111,000 MW in 2000.
In 2013, the leading type of power generation by utilities in Canada is hydroelectricity, with a share of 60.1%. Nuclear (15.8%), natural gas (10.3%), coal (10%), wind (1.8%), fuel oil (1.2%), biofuels and waste (0.8%), wood (0.4%) and solar (0.1%) follow. Other sources, such as petroleum coke make up the remaining 0.5%.
However, these figures do not account for the variety of provincial generation mixes. Historic producers of coal and natural gas, like Alberta (60.9%), Nova Scotia (63%), and Saskatchewan (86%) have come to rely mainly on fossil fuel power stations. In hydro-rich provinces, such as Manitoba (99.5%), Quebec (97.2%), Newfoundland and Labrador (97.1%), and British Columbia (88.7%), hydroelectric power accounts for the bulk of all electric generation.
In Canada's most populated province, Ontario Hydro has developed 11,990 MW of nuclear capacity between 1966 and 1993, building 20 CANDU reactors at 3 sites: Pickering, Darlington and Bruce. New Brunswick and by extension, Prince Edward Island, which buys 96% of its power from the neighbouring province, has a diversified mix, including a nuclear reactor and hydroelectric dams. However, the province is dependent on expensive fuel oil generation.
The electrical generating capacities of the provinces and territories in Canada are broken down below. Numbers are given in megawatts (MW) and gigawatt-hours (GWh). The tables below use 2010 data from Statistics Canada.
Nameplate capacity + Installed generating capacity (MW), by source and province or territory, 2024 Type Canada Hydro 83,053 7,586 0 375 947 40,705 8,955 6,163 863 917 16,387 98 56 0Wind 17,287 54 204 624 396 3,995 5,533 258 812 4,649 745 4 13 0Solar 5,240 0 71 80 12 16 2,857 39 100 1,984 71 9 2 0Geothermal 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0Thermal 50,759 605 91 1,957 3,115 1,559 24,681 314 3,976 12,601 1,577 34 142 106 Conventional Steam 20,204 508 1 1,591 1,740 591 5,435 22 2,235 6,898 1,183 0 0 0 Nuclear 14,185 0 0 0 660 0 13,525 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Combustion turbine 15,219 0 89 366 713 781 5,585 280 1,726 5,311 348 0 20 0 Internal combustion 1,151 97 0 0 3 187 136 12 14 392 45 34 123 106Total installed capacity 156,388 8,246 365 3,036 4,470 46,275 42,026 6,774 5,771 20,181 18,780 145 212 107
Total generation by type +Electric power generation (GWh), by source and province or territory, 2024 Type Canada Hydro 341,824 41,070 0 728 2,629 172,164 39,283 29,423 2,407 1,826 51,730 430 133 0 Wind 45,843 174 532 1,597 983 11,013 13,862 908 2,143 12,831 1,776 5.4 18.5 0 Solar 5,234 0 32.1 2.7 2.6 14.6 2,325 1.7 55.9 2,792 3.4 0.8 3.2 0.1Nuclear 81,735 0 0 0 1,767 0 79,969 0 0 0 0 0 0 0Tidal 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0Combustible fuels 134,569 1,120 5.5 6,503 6,069 2,330 28,803 109 20,098 63,133 5,535 116 510 239Other 283 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 129 155 0 0 0 0Total 609,488 42,364 569 8,831 11,450 185,522 164,241 30,441 24,832 80,737 59,044 553 664 239
Utilities generation by fuel +Electricity generated from fuels by thermal plants, by province or territory, 2010A detailed breakdown for industrial generation by fuel source is not available. Fuel Canada GWh Total solids 78,983.0 0 4.3 8,000.9 3,072.0 846.9 12,854.6 44.4 12,084.2 41,463.7 603.5 0 0 0 Coal 74,300.0 0 0 6,791.8 2,081.0 0 12,285.4 44.4 12,084.2 41,013.1 0 0 0 0 Wood 2,306.5 0 2.4 184.0 0 660.5 405.4 0 0 450.6 603.5 0 0 0 Petroleum coke 2,024.3 0 0 1,033.4 990.9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Other solid fuels 352.1 0 1.9 0 0 186.4 163.8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total liquids 3,057.8 915.2 -0.5 49.9 1,307.2 367.6 60.6 17.0 17.7 12.6 62.6 25.0 61.1 161.9 Total petroleum products 3,057.7 915.2 -0.5 49.9 1307.2 367.6 60.6 17.0 17.7 12.5 62.6 25.0 61.1 161.9 Propane 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.1 0 0 0 0 Other Liquid Fuels 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total gas 34,512.6 0 0 2,274.7 1,873.4 326.2 15,020.1 22.9 3,309.2 10,775.6 1,856.5 0 27.5 0 Natural Gas 34,512.6 0 0 2,274.7 1,836.5 199.7 15,020.1 22.9 3,309.2 10,234.4 1,856.5 0 27.5 0 Methane 0 0 0 0 4.6 59.6 0 0 0 51.7 0 0 0 0 Other Gaseous Fuels 0 0 0 0 32.3 66.9 0 0 0 489.5 0 0 0 0 Uranium 85,526.6 0 0 0 0 3,551.6 81,975 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Steam from waste heat 6,179.7 0 0 0 680.7 0 2,716.4 0 627.6 1,504.4 650.6 0 0 0 Note: Ontario eliminated coal in 2014.
Electricity per person and by power source