Hydro-Quebec posts record profit with soaring US export sales

Hydro-Quebec posted record profit last year after selling electricity to the US at elevated prices driven up by the European energy crisis and an economic recovery.

Canada’s largest hydroelectric utility earned C$4.6 billion ($3.4 billion) in annual profit, a 28% jump from the prior year, according to a Wednesday statement from the provincially owned corporation. The results translate into a C$3.4 billion dividend for Quebec’s provincial government.

“Hydro-Quebec ended 2022 in very good shape,” Chief Executive Officer Sophie Brochu in the statement, in one of her final public comments as she prepares to step down in April after a three-year tenure.

Hydro-Quebec saw a 60% surge in export sales last year to almost C$3 billion, with added demand from the US when Russia’s war in Ukraine escalated prices for natural gas, a common power plant fuel. That drove up electricity prices, and boosted US appetite for cheaper power that the Canadian utility could provide.

“The economic recovery and energy crisis that hit Europe as a result of the conflict in Ukraine drove up natural gas prices, leading to higher electricity prices in northeastern markets of the United States given the significant use of this sector in the production of electricity on these markets,” the utility said in its statement.

Meanwhile, energy volumes reached an all-time high of 180.6 terawatt-hours, due in part to cold temperatures in January 2022. Hydro-Quebec is seeing unprecedented demand for its renewable energy from Quebeckers seeking to reduce environmental impacts by adopting electric vehicles, as well as emerging industries such as EV battery manufacturers and hydrogen producers.

Brochu, who led the $2 billion acquisition of New England’s Great River Hydro LLC in October, presented the utility’s financial results for her last time. In January, she announced her resignation amid a dispute with the government on how aggressively Hydro-Quebec’s renewable power should be used as a bargaining chip to lure energy-intensive businesses to the French-speaking province.