What crosses the border: Canada's electricity exports, imports and international power lines, on both issuers' records

Every export of electricity from Canada needs a permit or a licence from the Canada Energy Regulator, and every international power line it travels on is on the same regulator's register. That makes the cross-border side of the electricity system unusually well recorded: a monthly file of volumes and values back to January 1990, and a line-by-line register of the physical connections. Statistics Canada separately asks utilities what they delivered to and received from the United States, so the same flow is measured twice, by two federal issuers, from two different sets of respondents. This entry pins the position both records show -- what leaves, what arrives, what the net has been, and how many connections carry it -- and pins the distance between the two issuers' answers rather than choosing one. It states what the records hold; it does not forecast flows, and it does not merge the two measurements into a single number.

A Resolution record holds one institution's own published figures for a single, specific quantity — a projection, an estimate, or a measured record — across every vintage in which that institution restated it. Each time an issuer publishes a new budget, report, or release, an earlier figure does not disappear from the record; it is preserved exactly as it was first published, dated and cited, alongside the newer one. What is a Resolution record? →

Maintained record. This lineage preserves an official record version by version — observations, estimates, or benchmarks its issuer restated over time. It projects nothing, so no settlement is pending; where a figure can still be revised, the page says so. How the numbers moved between versions is the evidence this lineage exists to keep.

The lineage

Vintage	Issuer	Published	Position	Source
Calendar years 1990 through 2026, of which 1990 through 2025 are complete twelve-month years; the catalogue record was last modified 2026-07-02 and the file was captured 2026-07-26	Canada Energy Regulator	2026-07-02	current	Source → · accessed 2026-07-26
Calendar years 1990 through 2026, of which 1990 through 2025 are complete; captured 2026-07-26	Canada Energy Regulator	2026-07-02	current	Source → · accessed 2026-07-26
Calendar 2025, complete; captured 2026-07-26	Canada Energy Regulator	2026-07-02	current	Source → · accessed 2026-07-26
Calendar 2025, complete; captured 2026-07-26	Canada Energy Regulator	2026-07-02	current	Source → · accessed 2026-07-26
436 monthly periods, January 1990 through April 2026; captured 2026-07-26	Canada Energy Regulator	2026-07-02	current	Source → · accessed 2026-07-26
436 monthly periods, January 1990 through April 2026; captured 2026-07-26	Canada Energy Regulator	2026-07-02	current	Source → · accessed 2026-07-26
The register as it stood at capture on 2026-07-26; the catalogue record was last modified 2026-04-09	Canada Energy Regulator	2026-04-09	current	Source → · accessed 2026-07-26
Monthly, reference months 2008-01 through 2026-04, as published at capture on 2026-07-26	Statistics Canada	2026-07-24	current	Source → · accessed 2026-07-26
Monthly, reference months 2008-01 through 2026-04, as published at capture on 2026-07-26	Statistics Canada	2026-07-24	current	Source → · accessed 2026-07-26
Monthly, reference months 2008-01 through 2026-04, as published at capture on 2026-07-26	Statistics Canada	2026-07-24	current	Source → · accessed 2026-07-26

Vintage	Period	Value	Role	Assurance	Basis
Calendar years 1990 through 2026, of which 1990 through 2025 are complete twelve-month years; the catalogue record was last modified 2026-07-02 and the file was captured 2026-07-26	Electricity exported from Canada, calendar 2025	32,123,557.1 MWh	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Calendar years 1990 through 2026, of which 1990 through 2025 are complete; captured 2026-07-26	Electricity imported into Canada, calendar 2025 -- the highest in the thirty-six-year record	25,229,332.9 MWh	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Calendar years 1990 through 2026, of which 1990 through 2025 are complete twelve-month years; the catalogue record was last modified 2026-07-02 and the file was captured 2026-07-26	Electricity exported from Canada, calendar 2016 -- the year of the record's widest net position	73,102,689.3 MWh	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Calendar years 1990 through 2026, of which 1990 through 2025 are complete; captured 2026-07-26	Electricity imported into Canada, calendar 2016	9,083,219.8 MWh	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Calendar 2025, complete; captured 2026-07-26	What Canada's electricity exports were worth, calendar 2025	3,067,209,943.4 CAD	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Calendar 2025, complete; captured 2026-07-26	What Canada's electricity imports cost, calendar 2025	1,667,087,814.3 CAD	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
436 monthly periods, January 1990 through April 2026; captured 2026-07-26	Electricity exported from Canada, twelve months to April 2026	32,529,079.4 MWh	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
436 monthly periods, January 1990 through April 2026; captured 2026-07-26	Electricity imported into Canada, twelve months to April 2026	26,239,676.0 MWh	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Monthly, reference months 2008-01 through 2026-04, as published at capture on 2026-07-26	Deliveries to the United States as Statistics Canada measures them, twelve months to April 2026	32,490,820.0 MWh	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Monthly, reference months 2008-01 through 2026-04, as published at capture on 2026-07-26	Purchased receipts from the United States as Statistics Canada measures them, twelve months to April 2026	26,263,639.0 MWh	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Monthly, reference months 2008-01 through 2026-04, as published at capture on 2026-07-26	Total Canadian electricity generation, twelve months to April 2026	625,010,669.0 MWh	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
The register as it stood at capture on 2026-07-26; the catalogue record was last modified 2026-04-09	International power lines recorded as Operating, at capture on 26 July 2026	86.0 international power lines	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published

Movement between vintages

A record, not a ranking: this entry states what was published and how it compares to what followed. It never says who was right, which institution performed better, or grades a forecaster's competence.

Comparison	Compared vintages	Movement	Basis
The net position over the twelve months to April 2026, on the regulator's record	436 monthly periods, January 1990 through April 2026; captured 2026-07-26 (institutional estimate 26,239,676.0 MWh) vs. 436 monthly periods, January 1990 through April 2026; captured 2026-07-26 (institutional estimate 32,529,079.4 MWh)	+6,289,403.4 MWh	same issuer
The net position in calendar 2025	Calendar years 1990 through 2026, of which 1990 through 2025 are complete; captured 2026-07-26 (institutional estimate 25,229,332.9 MWh) vs. Calendar years 1990 through 2026, of which 1990 through 2025 are complete twelve-month years; the catalogue record was last modified 2026-07-02 and the file was captured 2026-07-26 (institutional estimate 32,123,557.1 MWh)	+6,894,224.3 MWh	same issuer
The net position in calendar 2016, the widest in the record	Calendar years 1990 through 2026, of which 1990 through 2025 are complete; captured 2026-07-26 (institutional estimate 9,083,219.8 MWh) vs. Calendar years 1990 through 2026, of which 1990 through 2025 are complete twelve-month years; the catalogue record was last modified 2026-07-02 and the file was captured 2026-07-26 (institutional estimate 73,102,689.3 MWh)	+64,019,469.5 MWh	same issuer
Exports: 2016 against 2025	Calendar years 1990 through 2026, of which 1990 through 2025 are complete twelve-month years; the catalogue record was last modified 2026-07-02 and the file was captured 2026-07-26 (institutional estimate 73,102,689.3 MWh) vs. Calendar years 1990 through 2026, of which 1990 through 2025 are complete twelve-month years; the catalogue record was last modified 2026-07-02 and the file was captured 2026-07-26 (institutional estimate 32,123,557.1 MWh)	-40,979,132.2 MWh	same issuer
Imports: 2016 against 2025	Calendar years 1990 through 2026, of which 1990 through 2025 are complete; captured 2026-07-26 (institutional estimate 9,083,219.8 MWh) vs. Calendar years 1990 through 2026, of which 1990 through 2025 are complete; captured 2026-07-26 (institutional estimate 25,229,332.9 MWh)	+16,146,113.0 MWh	same issuer
What the trade was worth in calendar 2025	Calendar 2025, complete; captured 2026-07-26 (institutional estimate 1,667,087,814.3 CAD) vs. Calendar 2025, complete; captured 2026-07-26 (institutional estimate 3,067,209,943.4 CAD)	+1,400,122,129.1 CAD	same issuer
The same twelve months of exports, measured by two federal issuers	Monthly, reference months 2008-01 through 2026-04, as published at capture on 2026-07-26 (institutional estimate 32,490,820.0 MWh) vs. 436 monthly periods, January 1990 through April 2026; captured 2026-07-26 (institutional estimate 32,529,079.4 MWh)	+38,259.4 MWh	cross-issuer
The same twelve months of imports, measured by two federal issuers	Monthly, reference months 2008-01 through 2026-04, as published at capture on 2026-07-26 (institutional estimate 26,263,639.0 MWh) vs. 436 monthly periods, January 1990 through April 2026; captured 2026-07-26 (institutional estimate 26,239,676.0 MWh)	-23,963.0 MWh	cross-issuer

Evidence qualifications (7)

The two issuers do not publish the same number, and this entry does not choose between them. Over the twelve months to April 2026 the Canada Energy Regulator's export total is about a tenth of one per cent above Statistics Canada's deliveries figure and its import total about a tenth of one per cent below Statistics Canada's receipts figure. Across the 220 months both records cover, the average monthly gap is 0.8 per cent on exports and 1.6 per cent on imports, in both directions. Both are official records of the same physical flow, collected from different respondents; the distance between them is published here as a property of measuring electricity trade.
The file's own Price column is not used anywhere in this entry. The data dictionary defines it as the average price in Canadian dollars per megawatt hour, but the published figure cannot be reproduced from the file's own Energy and Total Value columns -- for calendar 2025 exports the file states 90.66 while value divided by volume gives 95.48 -- and the file does not disclose how it is derived. Rather than publish a price we cannot re-derive, or silently substitute our own, this entry pins volumes and values only and records the discrepancy.
This is the international border, not the provincial ones. The Canada Energy Regulator's mandate covers international power lines and export permits, so its file records nothing about electricity moving between provinces. Statistics Canada's cube has components for interprovincial receipts and deliveries but publishes no observation for either at the Canada aggregate, which is where this entry reads. The domestic intertie is therefore not measured anywhere in this entry, and no figure here should be read as covering it.
Two components of the Statistics Canada cube have been discontinued and are not used. The firm and non-firm split of deliveries to the United States ends at December 2015, and 'Other receipts from the United States' ends at December 2011. Nothing here extends, imputes, or fills those series, and the import comparison uses the purchased-receipts component alone, which is the whole of what the cube now records as arriving.
The register counts lines, not capacity. The International Power Lines register carries a capacity column, but it is populated with zero on many rows, so no total transfer capability is computed from it here and none should be inferred from the count of 86 operating lines. The register is also attribute-grain, not geometry: no current national transmission geometry layer is available under an open instrument, and the regulator's interactive map sits under different and narrower terms that this entry does not rely on.
Every figure here is as published at capture and subject to the issuers' ordinary revision. Neither the Canada Energy Regulator file nor the Statistics Canada cube publishes a vintage archive of itself, so a figure pinned here cannot later be compared against what the same source said today unless these bytes are kept -- which is why they are archived with their hashes.
Nothing in this entry explains the position it records. Cross-border electricity flows respond to hydrology, demand, relative prices, plant availability, transmission outages and policy on both sides of the border, and this record separates none of them. The narrowing of the net position since 2016 is stated as what the record shows, and attributed to nothing.

Latest source: What crosses the border: Canada's electricity exports, imports and international power lines, on both issuers' records · accessed 2026-07-26

Related on this site

This is the current public record for this lineage. See Work with Countability for a commissioned projection-resolution question.

Work with Countability