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Ontario’s energy resources include crude oil, natural gas, hydro power, nuclear power, wind, biomass and solar. The province uses these and coal to generate electricity.
Ontario was a net exporter of refined crude products and electricity and a net importer of crude oil and coal in 2008.
The energy industry in Ontario, primarily the utilities sector, accounted for about two percent of the province’s gross domestic product in 2008.
In 2008, Ontario collected $2.7 billion in revenue from its energy industry, almost all of which came from electricity generation and transmission.
The energy industry in Ontario employed more than 65,5000 people in 2008.
Discover the key energy facts about Ontario.
By the numbers (494KB PDF)
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Crude Oil
The first commercial oil well in North America was dug, not drilled, by James Miller Williams in 1858 near Oil Springs, in southwestern Ontario. Oil from the well was refined into lamp oil and other products in Hamilton, Ontario. Williams’ company was the first fully integrated oil company in North America.
Ontario’s oil and gas industry is located in the southwest part of the province between Lake Huron and Lake Erie.
At year-end 2008, Ontario’s crude oil reserves amounted to 9.9 million barrels. In 2008, Ontario had 1,189 operating oil wells, producing an average 1,649 barrels per day.
The province generated about $15.8 million in oil and gas fees, licences and royalties in 2008.
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Natural Gas
Canada’s second natural gas field was discovered in southwestern Ontario in 1866, and that area of the province remained the centre of Canada’s natural gas industry until the early 1900s.
At year-end 2008, Ontario’s natural gas reserves totalled 693 billion cubic feet.
In 2008, Ontario had 1,369 operating natural gas wells, producing an average 26 million cubic feet per day. However, most of the natural gas consumed in Ontario comes from Western Canada.
In 2008, Ontario’s consumption of natural gas averaged about 2.5 billion cubic feet per day, second only to Alberta.
Most of Ontario’s natural gas reserves underlie Lake Erie.
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Natural Gas Pipelines
The TransCanada Canadian Mainline delivers natural gas from the Alberta-Saskatchewan border east to the Québec-Vermont border and connects with other natural gas pipelines in Canada. In 2008, the Mainline transported an average 9.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.
Enbridge’s Vector Pipeline extends from the Alliance Pipeline terminus in Chicago to Dawn, Ontario for distribution to consumers in southwest Ontario. The pipeline’s capacity is 1.3 billion cubic feet per day.
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Liquids Pipelines
The Enbridge System extends from Edmonton, Alberta to Gretna, Manitoba where it enters the United States, re-entering Canada near Sarnia, Ontario and continuing to Montreal, Quebec. Since October 1999, the section of pipeline from Montreal to Sarnia (Line 9) has operated in a fully-reversed-flow mode, transporting oil from east to west.
Trans-Northern Pipelines extends from Nanticoke, Ontario to Montréal, Québec and delivers refined petroleum products to major cities and airports in southern Ontario and western Quebec.
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Refineries
Imperial Oil operates two refineries in Ontario – Sarnia and Nanticoke. Total throughput is 239,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Products include unleaded gasoline, jet fuel, stove oil, furnace fuel, diesel, marine fuel, propane and butane and lubricating oils, olefins, polyethylene, benzene, toluene, xylene, specialized solvents, plasticizer feedstocks. The plants employ approximately 1,400 workers.
Shell Canada’s Sarnia refinery produces gasoline, distillates, liquid petroleum gas, heavy oils, pure chemicals and solvents. Throughput is almost 75,000 barrels per day. The refinery has 350 full-time employees.
Suncor’s 85,000-barrel-per-day refinery at Sarnia produces gasoline, kerosene, jet and diesel fuels.
The Nova Chemicals plant near Sarnia produces ethylene, propylene, benzene and toluene all of which are raw materials for the plastics industry.
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Hydroelectricity
Ontario has 190 hydro-powered generating stations, spread throughout the province but concentrated in the southeast. They range in installed capacity from less than one megawatt to 1,449 at the Sir Adam Beck II power station at Niagara Falls, the province’s largest.
In 2008, installed capacity for hydropower was 8,150 MW, or 28.2 per cent of the province’s total installed capacity. Hydroelectricity accounted for 25 per cent of the electricity generated in the province.
The first hydroelectricity generating station in Ontario was completed in 1881 .near Ottawa and consisted of a waterwheel on the Ottawa River. The first The first high-head generating station in Canada was built at DeCew Falls in 1898.
Redevelopment of some existing hydro facilities, and development of some previously assessed sites could increase installed capacity by 1,600 megawatts.
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Wind
As at February 2010, Ontario has 25 wind farms, ranging in size from one turbine to 126. Installed capacities range from 0.6 megawatts to 198 megawatts at the Wolfe Island EcoPower Centre near Kingston.
Total installed Capacity is 1,208 megawatts, or 4.2 per cent of Ontario’s total installed capacity.
Ontario has 38.5 per cent of Canada’s installed capacity for wind-generated electricity.
The first wind turbine in Ontario was installed near Kincardine on the east shore of Lake Huron in 1995. The installed capacity is 0.6 megawatts.
Fourteen wind farms are either under construction or have power purchase agreements in place in Ontario with total installed capacity of 542.7 megawatts. They range in capacity from 6.5 megawatts to 101.2 megawatts.
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Thermal Electricity Generation
Thermal electricity represents 40 per cent of Ontario’s total installed capacity, but provides 22.4 per cent of the electricity consumed in the province.
Ontario has four coal-fired generating stations with a combined installed capacity of 6,077 megawatts. The largest of these is the Nanticoke Generating Station south of Hamilton. with an installed capacity of 3,640 megawatts.
The province has one oil-fired generating station, Lennox, near Kingston with an installed capacity of 2100 megawatts.
Ontario has 29 natural gas fired generating stations with a total combined installed capacity of 5,905.3 megawatts.
Ontario also has eight biomass-fired facilities with a total combined installed capacity of 165 megawatts
Thermal electricity facilities can generate power several different ways, including natural gas (represented by circles on the map), oil/diesel generation (squares), coal (triangles) and biomass (diamonds).
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Nuclear
In 2008, Ontario had 16 operating nuclear reactors with a total net installed capacity of 11,340 megawatts, the largest installed capacity of nuclear power in Canada.
Ontario has three nuclear power facilities, Darlington and Pickering on the north shore of Lake Ontario and Bruce Power on the east shore of Lake Huron, at Douglas Point near Kincardine.
Nuclear power represents 39.3 per cent of Ontario’s installed capacity, but provides 52.3 per cent of the electricity consumed in the province.
Pickering A, the first nuclear generating station in Canada, began operation in 1971. Unit 7 at Pickering B holds the world record for the longest non-stop operation of a nuclear reactor – 894 days.
