Overview of the Electric Power System
In 2005, the Canadian electric infrastructure was to a large extent under provincial jurisdiction [6] and comprised generation, transmission and distribution. Provincial authorities exercised their jurisdiction through provincial Crown utilities1 and provincial regulatory agencies. Historically, electricity was supplied by vertically-integrated electric utilities that were often Crown corporations with monopoly rights. At the end of the 1990s, the structure of the industry changed as most provinces began to separate the generation, transmission, and distribution functions into different organizations. Some provinces even allowed participation of the private sector as independent power producers.
At the federal level, Canada’s National Energy Board exercised jurisdiction over electricity exports and international and designated interprovincial power lines, whereas the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission had authority over the nuclear energy sector. The federal government supported research, development and commercialization of emerging technologies, including nuclear.
Electricity in Canada was mainly generated by hydroelectric facilities or nuclear and thermal plants, these last powered by fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. There was a total of 979 power plants operating in Canada in 2005. Of these, 503 were hydroelectric, 419 were conventional thermal power plants, 49 were wind powered, 7 were nuclear, and one was a tidal-powered plant. Canada was the largest hydroelectric producer for many years. In 2005, Canada had access to about 7% of the world’s water flow [7], and was therefore ranked second in the world for hydroelectric power generation, after China. The country was also among the top 10 electricity producers worldwide in 2005, contributing 3.4% of the global electricity production [8].
According to Statistics Canada [9, 10], from 2002 to 2005, Canada’s total installed capacity had increased by 5.7%, for a total of 121,482 MW, while the net generation of electricity increased by only 4%, reaching 604,500 GW-h. Hydroelectricity continued to be the main type of electricity generation in Canada in 2005, producing 358,446 GW-h (59% of the national total), followed by conventional steam plants with 130,320 GW-h (21.5%) and nuclear sources with 86,830 GW-h (14%). Therefore, approximately 74% of the electricity generated in Canada in 2005 was obtained by processes with no air pollutant emissions [9, 10].
Within the 21.5% of Canada’s total electricity generated in 2005 by electric utility thermal plants using fossil fuels, the burning of coal predominated, followed by natural gas and petroleum, with 66.4%, 21.8% and 7.8%, respectively [9].
From 2002 to 2005, electricity production from hydro and nuclear plants increased by 3.5% and 21.9%, respectively, while production from conventional steam plants decreased by 8.0%. The provinces of Quebec and Ontario together contributed approximately 56% of the total electricity generation in Canada in 2005 [9, 10].
1 Crown utilities refer to those facilities owned by federal or provincial governments and structured like private or independent enterprises. These utilities enjoy greater freedom from direct political control than government departments.