Hydro-Quebec--Power Plant of the Quebec Climate Complex

Geography is destiny. Many of Quebec's 4,500 rivers flow through sparsely populated northern reaches where flooding vast tracts elicits scant cost. Harnessing this bounty was assigned to Hydro-Quebec by that corporation's sole shareholder, le Gouvernement du Quebec. Hydro-Quebec's 62 hydroelectric stations generate up to 36,400 megawatts (MW). Hydro-Quebec also owns transmission and distribution rights to Newfoundland's 5,400 MW Churchill Falls facility. Getting this electricity to market requires 34,000 kilometres of high voltage line--North America's longest transmission system. These high voltage wires splice into 259,000 kilometres of local grid to carry North America's cheapest electricity (7 cents a kWh) to every household in la Belle Province.