In 1999, Canada was the largest producer of hydropower in the world, and the hydro sources are not yet fully exploited.

In 1999, Canadian electricity generation totaled 567.2 billion kilowatt hours (bkwh), of which: 60% was hydropower, 26% was conventional thermal power (oil, gas, and coal), 12% was nuclear generation, and 1% was derived from other renewable sources. Canada was the largest producer of hydropower in the world in 1999, and hydro sources are not yet fully exploited. Trends in coming years are expected to favor thermal power generation, mainly from natural gas. The Canadian nuclear power industry has declined to 69.8 bkwh in 1999 since its peak of 102.4 bkwh in 1994. Ontario contains the bulk of Canadian nuclear capacity.

Canada exported about 42.9 bkwh of electricity to the United States in 1999, mostly from Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick to New England and New York. Smaller volumes are exported from British Columbia and Manitoba to Washington State, Minnesota, California, and Oregon. There is considerable reciprocity between the Canadian and U.S. power markets, as the United States also exports smaller volumes of electricity to Canada.

Natural gas-fired power plant construction is on the rise in Canada, preparing for a three-fold increase in gas power generation in the next decade, as predicted by the Canadian Energy Research Institute. PanCanadian Petroleum, TransAlta, EPCOR, and ATCO Power are all in various stages of developing new (mostly cogeneration) gas-fired plants in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Under Canada's constitution, electricity is primarily within the jurisdiction of the provinces. In most provinces, the bulk of generation, transmission, and distribution is provided by a few dominant utilities. Although some of these utilities are privately owned, most are owned by the provinces. There is also limited independent power producer (IPP) generation, mostly for sales to the larger utilities.

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