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.