Analysis

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Electricity Generation

In 2007, net electricity generation decreased 13.3% to 617 469 GW.h. Of the total electricity generated, 572 779 GW.h was for use in Canada, an increase of 4.2% from 2006. The remaining 44 691 GW.h was exported, an increase of 4.6% from the previous year.

Hydro is the main source (59%) of electricity generation in Canada. Hydro stations produced 364 128 GW.h, up 4.2% from 2006. Generation from nuclear sources decreased 4.6% from 2006 to 88 190 GW.h. Production from conventional steam plants increased by 7.6% to 127 953 GW.h.

Domestic demand for electricity increased 3.2% to 592 161 GW.h in 2007. Residential use increased to 158 576 GW.h from 147 330 GW.h in 2007.

Sales

Total domestic sales of electricity to ultimate customers increased 4.4% in 2007 to 497 036 GW.h. Revenue received from sales totalled $35,015 million, an increase of 1.8% from 2006.

Revenues per kilowatt-hour for residential and agricultural sales for 2007 are 8.73 cents, down 0.5% from 2006. Revenues range from 6.10 cents per kilowatt-hour in Manitoba to 45.99 cents per kilowatt-hour in Nunavut.

Financial Data

Operating revenues of electric utilities increased 7.4% in 2007 to $57,613 million. Operating expenses increased 8.7% to $44,885 million. Electric utilities registered a net income of $6,991 million in 2007, down 9.4% from 2006.

Total assets stood at $183,586 million, up 2.1% from a year earlier. Long term debt is 42.7 % of total assets, down from 43.3% in 2006.

There were 75,695 persons employed by electric utilities in 2007, an increase of 0.2% from the previous year. Wages and salaries decreased 0.3% for a total wage bill of $5,965 million in 2007. Publicly operated utilities reported total wages and salaries of $5,050 million, while private utilities reported $915 million.

Cost of fuels

An increase in generation of 4.1% by electric utility thermal plants in 2007 was accompanied by an increase in their fuel expense of 14.0% to $4,736 million. Of all the fuels, the amount spent on petroleum products had the largest increase of 29.2% to $556 million. Natural gas saw the next largest increase of 15.8% to $2,253 million, and coal increased 9.6% to $1,650 million. The average delivered efficiency of thermal plants in 2007 was 30.9%.

It should be noted that the values presented above have been taken from Table 6. They may differ from values appearing in Table 8 due to collection period differences, accounting procedures (e.g. royalties paid on coal production are included in Table 6 but shown as a separate item on Table 8) and fuel usage (e.g. production of steam for sale).

Generating Capacity

Total generating capacity in Canada at the end of 2007 reached 124 240 MW, an increase of 0.5% from the 2006 level of 123 579 MW. In 2007, utilities' generating capacity totalled 115 850 MW, while industry reported 8 390 MW.

Notes

1. The first of these involves the amount of energy received by industrial generators from utilities. In past year all receipts were recorded, but starting in 1986 only those receipts necessary to fulfil outside commitments are shown. Consequently, the line “Used by producers” has been greatly reduced as it represents only that energy “used” from own production. This reduction is balanced by an equal increase in utility sales to mining and manufacturing. Table 10 is not affected.
2. The consumption categories employed in this publication do not equate with the rate structures of the utilities. Respondents have been requested to classify their customers according to these consumption categories. Because of the ongoing nature of the task of upgrading the accuracy of this classification, there may be a certain lack of uniformity in these statistical series through time.