Winter’s coming, so it’s time for Hydro-Québec to test the water. Happily, the news is good:
Le Devoir: Hydro pourra répondre à la demande: Même si 55 000 nouvelles maisons se sont branchées sur son réseau cette année, même si le très bel été a fait baisser le niveau de l’eau dans ses réservoirs et même si la hausse du prix du pétrole aura pour effet d’inciter un plus grand nombre de consommateurs que d’habitude à se convertir à l’électricité, Thierry Vandal, le grand patron d’Hydro-Québec, donne l’assurance que la société d’État a suffisamment d’approvisionnements en énergie pour que ses abonnés traversent les longs mois d’hiver dans le confort.
[Notwithstanding the anticipated increased demand and the low water levels after a fine summer, Hydro-Québec expects that it will be able to generate enough electricity for the winter.]
This is serious business: 80% of Quebec households use electric heating. And whatever water is going to turn the turbines during the winter better be in the reservoir now, because there won’t be much rain over the next 6 months.
The article raises another issue, one that my colleague Jean-Thomas Bernard has been talking about for years. New power generation costs around 0.13$ per kw/h, but the government-imposed rate that households pay is less than half that. Quebec often congratulates itself from having insulated itself from the vagaries of oil and natural gas prices, but it can’t keep prices below marginal cost forever.
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
Stephen
In the UK we actually have home heating subsidies for low income householders and pensioners. The subsidy varies by degree days.
Quebec’s electricity prices (retail) are about half the UK. GDP/head here is also lower.
The downside of all of this is in the long run, it would be better to spend money and insulate homes, rather than just subsidise consumption. We are doing some of that, but we have the most energy inefficient housing stock in northern Europe.