Electricity supply and disposition, 2017
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Released: 2018-10-31
Electricity supply
Canada generated 650.2 million MWh of electricity in 2017, up 0.6% over the prior year. Canada's two most populous provinces, Ontario and Quebec, accounted for 56.0% of the generation.
The majority of the electricity generation in Canada occurred from renewable sources, which include hydro, wind, solar and tidal. At 65.2% of the total generation, these combined sources rose 2.2% to 423.7 million MWh in 2017. Non-renewable sources, composed of nuclear, fossil fuels and other generation types, accounted for the remaining 34.8% of the total generation. Collectively, these sources decreased 2.4% to 226.6 million MWh.
Electricity trade
Canadian electricity exports to the United States fell 18.5% in 2017 to 71.1 million MWh. By contrast, imports from the United States rose 1.0% to 9.9 million MWh.
Electricity use
The total amount of electricity delivered to ultimate customers, ranging from residences to industrial sectors, increased 2.1% to 489.3 million MWh in 2017. British Columbia (+4.0%), Alberta (+6.8%) and Saskatchewan (+4.3%) saw the largest year-over-year growth. By contrast, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick saw a decrease in overall deliveries.
The amount of electricity generated but used by producers for their own purposes rose 5.2% to 74.7 million MWh of electricity in 2017.
Note to readers
The Annual Electricity Supply and Disposition Survey provides data on the amount of electricity generated, interprovincial movements of electricity, imports, exports and sales to final consumers.
Data from 2016 have been revised.
The Annual Electricity Supply and Disposition Survey is now administered as part of Statistics Canada's Integrated Business Statistics Program (IBSP). Detailed information about the IBSP is available from the Behind the data module of our website.
Contact information
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