No good reason not to buy more electricity from Quebec

Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoît Nadeau say the only reason it isn’t is purely political.

Green Leader Elizabeth May was right when she declared that Canada could reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by getting Hydro-Québec to sell its electricity to other provinces, rather than export it to the United States. But she was wrong in saying she needed to discuss this with Premier François Legault. May should be talking to Premier Doug Ford: Ontario has been the largest obstacle to integrating Canada’s electricity markets.

Hydro-Québec has been promoting electricity trade between provinces for decades. Quebec’s hydropower system is the second largest of its type in the world. It produces the cheapest and the greenest electricity on the continent. Supplying 48,000 megawatts of hydro and wind power, 99.8 per cent renewable, puts Quebec where California can only dream of being in two or maybe three generations.

At the moment, Hydro-Québec provides 15 per cent of the power of New Brunswick and the six New England states, and as much as 25 per cent of Vermont’s. Hydro-Québec meets five per cent of New York’s power needs and four per cent of Ontario’s. It could potentially export three times more electricity to Ontario than it does now, and could do so without so much as building a new power line. The necessary interconnection lines already exist. Eight of Quebec’s 15 interconnections with neighbouring utilities are with Ontario.

Yet these lines are only being used at 25 per cent of their capacity. The reason? Ontario has always resisted depending on Quebec to meet its energy needs. Instead, Ontario produces its own electricity at three times the price of Quebec.

Some in Ontario promote nuclear energy on the basis that it creates 15,000 jobs in the province. But Ontarians pay dearly for those jobs in the form of huge energy bills, enormous expenses in refurbishments and stranded asset writeoffs, not to mention dumping the responsibility

Provincial capitals are committed to the notion of electric independence

of dealing with nuclear waste on future generations. A number of Ontario’s nuclear stations are slated to be permanently shuttered or temporarily closed for refurbishment. Yet instead of taking advantage of cheap hydropower from next door, Ontario plans to use gas-fuelled thermal plants to compensate for this energy shortfall.

Strangely, contrary to what most believe, when it comes to electricity, Ontario and Quebec have long had a relationship of mutual support. In addition to helping one another rebuild power systems during blackouts, each province reserves lines to meet the other’s seasonal power shortfalls. In other words, the provinces already have a high degree of co-ordination.

But Ontario is about to miss the chance of a century: Hydro- Québec is working hard right now to sell its electricity surpluses to Massachusetts and New York City. Once this energy is committed to contracts, it will no longer be available.

What’s holding Ontario back? Mostly politics. Integrating electric power is controversial in Canada. Provincial capitals are committed to the notion of electric independence, even if it defies economic logic. Ontario’s obsession with electricity self-reliance is all the more bizarre since Ontario already buys its oil, natural gas and uranium from outside sources.

To be fair, regional electric integration is still a rare accomplishment. Scandinavian countries achieved a high degree of integration in the 1990s. Since 1956, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland have been working together in what resembles an “Auto Pact” for electricity. Quebec and Vermont are another example: the Quebec gas utility Énergir is the sole gas distributor in Vermont and also operates the state’s electric power grid.

Better integration of electricity can take many forms. It can be in the form of long-term or spot market trade. Premier François Legault proposed establishing an Ontario- Quebec Alliance to develop future dam projects. Full integration, or even merger, is also theoretically possible.

Integrating electricity mostly requires imagination and political will (and savvy). That has never been lacking in Quebec.

Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoît Nadeau are authors of Charging Ahead: Hydro-Quebec and the Future of Electricity (Baraka Books).