Demand for Electricity Drops 3.7% in September

December 5, 2015

Canada’s demand for electricity declined 3.7% from September 2014 to 38.5 million megawatt hours (MWh) in September. Lower demand contributed to the 2.3% decrease in total generation, as power plants produced 43.7 million MWh for the month.

Exports of electricity to the United States rose 7.5% to 5.8 million MWh on a year-over-year basis, as a result of greater shipments from both British Columbia and Quebec. However, lower exports from Ontario tempered the growth. Imports from the United States declined 7.4% from the same month a year earlier to 0.7 million MWh in September.

Chart 1: Electricity generation and consumption

Ontario was the main contributor to the national decrease in electricity generation, as output declined 17% from September 2014 to 10.3 million MWh. The main contributors to the decline in Ontario were nuclear and hydro generation. Plant outages helped push nuclear generation down 22.7% to 6.6 million MWh, while hydro output fell 9.8% to 2.7 million MWh.

Conversely, power generation was up in Quebec (+7.0%) and British Columbia (+11.9%). These two provinces, which are primarily powered by hydroelectricity, used the higher supply of electricity to increase exports to the United States as demand in both provinces decreased.

Source: Statistics Canada, www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/151126/dq151126c-eng.htm.