Here's the thing, when you have as much hydro and nuclear as Canada has, your have to worry a lot less about synchronization. We can literally dial up and down generation as needed from those sources. Most places have to build a lot of grid storage to do what we can do with all our existing assets. We are blessed by geography here. We need to be a bit more ambitious about exploiting it.
By the way, Quebec gets this, it's why they are so far ahead in the electrification game. Ontario for some reason doesn't even want to build up interconnects to Quebec to take advantage of all that dispatchable hydro they have.
The distance stuff is really not all that relevant. We build interconnects and trade power regionally. Electrons aren't going from Halifax to Vancouver. At best they are going from St. John's to Sudbury.
In any event, my point here is that we don't really have the shortage that people imagine. We also have a ton of cheap natural gas, which is exactly what Europe uses for a lot of high energy industrial processes. These can and should be leveraged to bring heavy industry to Canada. There's no point shipping gas to Europe. It's easier to ship them steel.
True about hydro, but nuclear doesn't dial up or down well. I agree that it is curious why Ontario isn't exploiting Quebec or Manitoba hydro power. Obviously, Quebec is closer to our major load centres and it would seem our two peaks are synergistic; theirs is winter, ours is summer. Interconnects between asynchronous grids are expensive; perhaps that's the reason.
Alberta, Saskatchewan, NWT and the Maritimes are the largest exploiters of fossil fuels, plus a number of nearby US states, so there is adequate opportunity but the infrastructure costs are high, particularly if nuclear is in the equation. Ontario's hydro capacity is pretty much tapped out. Quebec has the advantage of a terrain in its north that is conducive to creating major diversions and reservoirs.
I wouldn't discount distance. Ontario just dropped about $1Bn just to increase grid capacity between n/w Ontario and the rest of the province, just to bring it up to adequate, and longer distances have energy movement impacts. With the possible exception of BC, the nature of our geography has major hydroelectric sources a long way from the major loads.
I agree we don't have a shortage issue, we have a distribution issue. If we mention natural gas we run the risk of attracting the 'end all fossil fuels now' crowd who think we can maintain of current quality of life and economy because 'the next great battery' is just around the corner to solve all of our problems.
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