Difficult winter for Hydro Quebec

This is important for Ontario's electricity planning: Quebec cannot provide firm capacity supply to Ontario to meet winter peaks in demand.

Hiver difficile pour Hydro-Québec | Pierre Couture | Actualité économique:

(Québec) Le dernier hiver n'a pas été de tout repos pour Hydro-Québec. Malgré ses gigantesques surplus, le réseau d'Hydro-Québec n'a pas été en mesure de suffire à la demande cet hiver. La société d'État a été contrainte d'acheter des quantités significatives d'électricité sur les réseaux voisins ainsi que de ses gros clients industriels.
Les écarts importants de température observés ont notamment poussé la société d'État à acquérir tout près de 500 000 mégawattheures (MWh) en provenance de producteurs d'électricité hors Québec lors des mois de décembre et de janvier.
La société d'État a même fracassé un record de consommation le 22 janvier avec une pointe historique de 39 240 mégawatts (MW).
Des données de l'Office national de l'énergie (ONE) indiquent qu'Hydro-Québec a notamment importé 278 000 mégawattheures à un coût unitaire de 27,3 ¢ le kilowattheure (kWh) en janvier dernier.

I've posted the quote in French because I figure most can use the same translation I do (Google), and the nuance of the original in the final two paragraphs of the full article might be even better without the clunky translation.


The gist of the article is that Quebec hit a record consumption level during the past winter, and was forced to import expensive electricity from the United States at times.

The corporation has even smashed a record consumption on January 22 with a historical peak of 39,240 megawatts (MW).
Data from the National Energy Board (NEB) indicate that Hydro-Québec has imported 278,000 megawatt hours at a cost of 27.3 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) in January.
In comparison, the corporation had imported 103,000 MWh in January 2013, and, at a cost of 11.6 cents per kilowatt hour.

Some things the article doesn't say:

• The National Energy Board (NEB) only shows international trade - not provincial
• The NEB shows 2.1TWh exported from Quebec (QC) in January, at $71.03/MWh - far more than the province imported
• The NEB data shows only 100GWh imported by Ontario (ON), at an average $107/MWh (QC 280GWh at $266/MWh )
• NEB February reporting shows reduced QC import volume (65GWh) at still elevated pricing ($175/MWh avg)
• Ontario's system operator shows 670GWh exported to QC over the two months - far greater than 345GWh NEB shows as imported from US
• Ontairo's system operator doesn't show all generation in Ontario consumed in Quebec
• Ontario moved ~974GWh to QC in January and February, but only ~100GWh net. 
• Throughout the winter Ontario's exports to QC are probably at higher rates then imports from Quebec
• Outside of winter the opposite is true