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Ontario’s energy resources include crude oil, natural gas, hydro power, nuclear power, wind and biomass. The province uses these and coal to generate electricity. It will add solar to the mix when it’s first large-scale solar farm comes on stream later this year.
Ontario is a net exporter of refined crude products and electricity and a net importer of crude oil and coal.
The energy industry in Ontario, primarily the utilities sector, accounts for about two percent of the province’s gross domestic product.
In 2008, Ontario collected $2.8 billion in revenue from its energy industry, almost all of which came from electricity generation and transmission.
The energy industry in Ontario employs more than 65,5000 people.
Discover the key energy facts about Ontario.
By the numbers (500KB 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 2007, Ontario’s crude oil reserves amounted to 10.2 million barrels. In 2007, Ontario had 1,200 operating oil wells, producing an average 1,856 barrels per day.
The province generated about $8.5 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 2007, Ontario’s natural gas reserves totalled 0.7 trillion cubic feet.
In 2007, Ontario had 1,433 operating natural gas wells, producing an average 28.3 million cubic feet per day. However, most of the natural gas consumed in Ontario comes from Western Canada.
In 2007, Ontario’s consumption of natural gas averaged about 2.6 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.
Liquids Pipelines
Effective October 1999, the section of pipeline from Montreal to Sarnia (Line 9) was operating 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 38,000 cubic metres 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 plant employs 1,400 workers.
Shell Canada’s Sarnia refinery produces gasoline, distillates, liquid petroleum gas, heavy oils, pure chemicals and solvents. Throughput is almost 12,000 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 192 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 2007, installed capacity for hydropower was 8,150 MW, or 22.4 per cent of the province’s total installed capacity. Hydroelectricity accounted for 24 per cent of the electricity generated in the province.
The first hydroelectricity generating station in Ontario was completed in 1892 at Niagara Falls. In 1925, the Sir Adam Beck power station began generating electricity. At the time, it was the largest such facility in the world.
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
Ontario has 22 wind farms, ranging in size from one turbine to 126. Installed capacities range from 0.6 megawatts to 189 megawatts at Brookfield Renewable Power’s Prince Wind Farm in Sault Ste. Marie.
Total installed Capacity is 963.7 megawatts, or 2.7 per cent of Ontario’s total installed capacity.
Ontario has 38 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.
Seven wind farms are under construction in Ontario with total installed capacity of 689.9 megawatts. They range in capacity from 50.4 megawatts to 197.8 megawatts.
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Thermal Electricity Generation
Ontario has four coal-fired generating station with a combined installed capacity of 6,420 megawatts.
Coal-fired electricity represents 17.7 per cent of Ontario’s total installed capacity, but provides 14.5 per cent of the electricity consumed in the province.
The largest coal-fired facility in Ontario is the Nanticoke Generating Station on the north shore of Lake Erie, south of Hamilton. with an installed capacity of 3,920 megawatts. Smaller facilities are located in Atikokan and Thunder Bay in northwest Ontario and near Sarnia in southwest Ontario.
In an effort to replace coal with renewable fuels, various types of biomass, including wood pellets and agricultural by-products, are being tested at the Nanticoke, Atikokan and Thunder Bay generating stations.
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Nuclear
Ontario has a total of 18 operating nuclear reactors with a total net installed capacity of 12,842 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 22.4 per cent of Ontario’s installed capacity, but provides 52 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.
