Who generates Canada's electricity, from what, and who buys it: two decades of the annual survey record

Statistics Canada surveys the generators of Canada's electricity every year and publishes the structure the monthly total conceals: how much electricity came from water, wind, sun, uranium and combustion, how much of the thermal fleet is built to burn which fuel, and who bought what the system sold. This entry pins that structure at both ends of the published record -- the make-up of generation in 2024, the thermal fleet's move from coal-fired to natural-gas-fired capacity since 2006, and the reordering among its customer classes since 2005, in which households passed mining and manufacturing. It also pins the distance between the issuer's annual survey and the same issuer's monthly survey for the one calendar year both fully cover at capture, and states that distance rather than resolving it. It reads one issuer's own record; it does not forecast the fleet, and it does not explain why any of these movements happened.

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
Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2025-10-22	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02
Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2025-10-22	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02
Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2025-10-22	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02
Annual; the solar member's first published observation is reference year 2009, and the series runs through 2024 as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2025-10-22	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02
Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2025-10-22	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02
Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2025-10-22	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02
Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2025-10-22	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02
Annual, reference years 2006 through 2024 with no published observation for 2012, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2025-10-27	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02
Annual, reference years 2006 through 2024 with no published observation for 2012, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2025-10-27	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02
Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2025-10-22	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02
Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2025-10-22	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02
Monthly, reference months 2008-01 through 2026-04, as published at the Wave 2 capture on 2026-07-26; the bytes are re-used here, not re-fetched	Statistics Canada	2026-07-24	current	Source → · accessed 2026-07-26

Vintage	Period	Value	Role	Assurance	Basis
Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Electricity generated in Canada, reference year 2024, on the annual survey	622,150,319.0 MWh	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Generation from hydraulic turbines, 2024	343,543,134.0 MWh	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Generation from wind power turbines, 2015 -- the first year of the widened survey frame	26,696,727.0 MWh	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Generation from wind power turbines, 2024	47,270,666.0 MWh	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual; the solar member's first published observation is reference year 2009, and the series runs through 2024 as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Generation from solar, 2024 -- the first year the total includes modelled small installations	6,976,141.0 MWh	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Generation from nuclear steam turbines, 2024	80,745,292.0 MWh	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Total thermal generation, 2024 -- nuclear included, in the cube's own structure	224,048,458.0 MWh	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Generation by industry, outside the utilities, 2024	60,145,162.0 MWh	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2006 through 2024 with no published observation for 2012, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Coal-fired conventional thermal capacity, 2006 -- the first year of the capacity record	14,701,000.0 kW	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2006 through 2024 with no published observation for 2012, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Coal-fired conventional thermal capacity, 2024	3,215,500.0 kW	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2006 through 2024 with no published observation for 2012, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Natural-gas-fired conventional thermal capacity, 2006	11,384,406.0 kW	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2006 through 2024 with no published observation for 2012, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Natural-gas-fired conventional thermal capacity, 2024	24,108,010.0 kW	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Electricity sold to residential customers, 2005	150,986,378.0 MWh	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Electricity sold to residential customers, 2024	179,559,419.0 MWh	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Electricity sold to mining and manufacturing, 2005	188,478,107.0 MWh	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Electricity sold to mining and manufacturing, 2024	152,921,656.0 MWh	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Monthly, reference months 2008-01 through 2026-04, as published at the Wave 2 capture on 2026-07-26; the bytes are re-used here, not re-fetched	Electricity generated in calendar 2024, on the same issuer's monthly survey	609,488,088.0 MWh	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
Wind generation: 2015 against 2024, inside one survey frame	Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 26,696,727.0 MWh) vs. Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 47,270,666.0 MWh)	+20,573,939.0 MWh	same issuer
Coal-fired capacity: 2006 against 2024	Annual, reference years 2006 through 2024 with no published observation for 2012, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 14,701,000.0 kW) vs. Annual, reference years 2006 through 2024 with no published observation for 2012, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 3,215,500.0 kW)	-11,485,500.0 kW	same issuer
Natural-gas-fired capacity: 2006 against 2024	Annual, reference years 2006 through 2024 with no published observation for 2012, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 11,384,406.0 kW) vs. Annual, reference years 2006 through 2024 with no published observation for 2012, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 24,108,010.0 kW)	+12,723,604.0 kW	same issuer
Residential against mining and manufacturing, 2005	Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 188,478,107.0 MWh) vs. Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 150,986,378.0 MWh)	-37,491,729.0 MWh	same issuer
Residential against mining and manufacturing, 2024	Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 152,921,656.0 MWh) vs. Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 179,559,419.0 MWh)	+26,637,763.0 MWh	same issuer
One year of generation, measured by the same issuer's annual and monthly surveys	Annual, reference years 2005 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 622,150,319.0 MWh) vs. Monthly, reference months 2008-01 through 2026-04, as published at the Wave 2 capture on 2026-07-26; the bytes are re-used here, not re-fetched (institutional estimate 609,488,088.0 MWh)	-12,662,231.0 MWh	same issuer

Evidence qualifications (8)

The survey's frame widened in 2015, and the issuer says so. Beginning with reference year 2015 the target population grew from 400 to 1200 establishments as renewable energy companies engaged in solar, wind, hydro and other technologies were added, and the issuer's own footnote advises caution when comparing with data prior to 2015. The wind comparison in this entry is deliberately based at 2015 to sit inside one frame; the capacity and customer-class comparisons cross the boundary and carry this caution with them.
The 2024 solar figure is the first to include modelled small installations. The issuer's footnote states that starting in 2024, solar generation totals include modelled output from installations below 100 kW, where earlier totals covered only surveyed systems of 100 kW and above. For that reason no solar growth comparison ending in 2024 is pinned anywhere in this entry, and the 2024 solar value must not be set against any earlier year as if the definition had not moved. Solar also has no published value before reference year 2009.
Total thermal generation includes nuclear. In the cube's structure, total thermal spans conventional steam, nuclear steam, internal combustion and combustion turbines -- generation from heat, not generation from fossil fuel. Anyone reading the 224,048,458 MWh thermal figure as fossil generation would overstate fossil generation by the 80,745,292 MWh that are nuclear.
The capacity record covers conventional thermal plants only, and 2012 is missing from it. Table 25-10-0023-01 records the capacity of conventional thermal plants by principal fuel; hydro, nuclear, wind and solar capacity are outside its frame, so nothing here states the system's total capacity or any fuel's share of it. The cube publishes no observation for reference year 2012 in any fuel at the Canada aggregate, so any every-year statement about this record means every published year. A fall in a fuel's capacity is a change in the stock the survey measures, not a recorded retirement event.
The annual survey and the monthly survey do not publish the same total for the same year, and this entry does not choose between them. For calendar 2024 the annual survey's total is 622,150,319 MWh and the monthly survey's twelve months sum to 609,488,088 MWh, 2.0 per cent less. Both are official instruments of one issuer, collected on different frames. The Brief's other chapters read the monthly instrument, so a 2024 figure from this chapter must never be set beside a monthly-instrument figure from another year and read as a movement.
Sales classes are the survey's own, and they do not cover the whole of generation. Total sales to ultimate customers exclude the electricity producers use themselves, losses and unallocated electricity, so customer-class figures are shares of what was sold, not of what was generated. The mining-and-manufacturing class is the survey's own grouping and is not decomposable here into mining against manufacturing. Across the survey's four customer classes the largest buyer has changed hands: mining and manufacturing was the largest in every year through 2008, residential has been the largest in every published year since 2014, and in between the lead moved year to year -- residential in 2009 and 2011, mining and manufacturing in 2010, other industries in 2012 and 2013. A comparison of residential against mining and manufacturing alone, like the one this entry pins, says nothing about which class was largest in any year, and the two statements are kept distinct wherever either appears.
Nothing in this entry explains the movements it records. Hydraulic generation in 2024 is below its own mid-decade levels, coal-fired capacity has fallen by more than three-quarters, and industrial electricity purchases are below their 2005 level; hydrology, prices, regulation, closures and demand all bear on these records and this entry separates none of them. No figure here is a forecast, and no capacity figure implies future generation.
Every figure is as published at capture on 2026-08-02 and subject to the issuer's ordinary revision. These cubes publish no vintage archive of themselves, so the pinned values cannot later be compared against what the same tables said on this date unless these bytes are kept -- which is why they are archived with their hashes.

Latest source: Who generates Canada's electricity, from what, and who buys it: two decades of the annual survey record · accessed 2026-08-02

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