Canada Power Exports To US Cut By Cold Weather

Canada exported 2,670 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity to the U.S. during the month, down from 3,268 GWh for the same period last year, according to a study released this week by the Canadian National Energy Board (NEB).

The U.S., meanwhile, almost doubled its power exports to Canada to 1,282 GWh in January from 692 GWh a year ago.

Electricity exports brought in almost C$180.4 million in revenue for Canada, while power bought from the U.S. cost a little over C$66 million, resulting in a net of C$114.3 million in revenue for Canada.

A gigawatt hour is enough electricity to run a city of about a million homes for 60 minutes.

In 2002, Canada sold C$141.9 million of electricity to the U.S. in January and bought just C$22.2 million worth of power, resulting in a net of C$119.7 million of revenue for Canada.

Quebec exported 1.3 million megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity to the U.S., by far the most of any province, worth C$105.4 million.

British Columbia was the No. 2 exporter, with 580,000 MWh of exports worth C$30.6 million.

Manitoba, meanwhile imported 399,000 MWh of electricity during the month, the most power of any province, costing just C$16.3 million, followed by British Columbia which imported 342,000 MWh worth C$14.1 million.

A megawatt hour is enough electricity to power about 1,000 homes for 60 minutes.

Canadian utilities, which generate most of their electricity at low cost hydropower facilities, generally sell power to the U.S. during the day when prices and demand are highest and buy power back from U.S. generators overnight when demand and prices are low.

New York bought more power from Canada than any other state at 1.2 million MWh, with 193,000 MWh from Ontario and 963,000 MWh from Quebec, at a cost of C$87.9 million.

North Dakota and Minnesota, meanwhile, exported the most power to Canada (Manitoba) -- 399,000 MWh worth C$16.3 million.