Move over Alberta, Quebec has designs to become a major provincial exporter of energy to the rest of Canada and even wider North America.
On Monday, premiers of Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador said they were studying how their hydroelectric resources can help the Atlantic region move away from coal power, according to The Canadian Press.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault raised the possibility of supplying all of Atlantic Canada’s electricity with some combination of hydro power from the two provinces that have often sparred over the resource, CP reported.
“It’s clear that we have, right now, some capacity, and we can add to this capacity,” Legault told Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Dwight Ball.
Quebec is the largest producer of electricity in the country with a generating capacity of 45,402 megawatts, according to the Canadian Energy Regulator.
“Quebec also trades with electricity markets in the U.S. Northeast,” CER states, noting that Quebec was the largest exporter of electricity to the U.S. of all Canadian provinces according to the latest available data.
“Hydro-Québec operates 34,272 km of transmission lines and 116,258 km of distribution lines. Fifteen interconnections link Quebec’s electricity system with systems in Ontario, New Brunswick, and the U.S. Northeast,” CER notes.
Alberta has also been eyeing a greater role in supplying energy to the Atlantic. But the province’s last great push eastwards ended in 2017 when TC Energy’s (formerly TransCanada Corp.) Energy East pipeline project — linking Western Canadian oil to the East Coast — was cancelled after opposition from local communities and especially the Quebec government.
Yadullah Hussain