Hydro-Québec may suspend power deliveries to U.S. as it faces pressure on water reservoirs

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Utility says it’s dealing with its four driest consecutive years since hydrological data began to be compiled in the 1940s

Hydro-Québec says it could suspend its contractual power deliveries to the United States for brief periods to protect the province’s own energy security as it faces unprecedented pressure on its northern water reservoirs.

The utility, Canada’s biggest producer of hydroelectricity, says it is dealing with its four driest consecutive years since hydrological data began to be compiled in the 1940s. Record-low runoff conditions that started in 2023 have not let up and reservoirs have not filled back up significantly, the provincial Crown corporation said in quarterly results released on Friday.

Demand for Hydro-Québec’s power continues to increase, forcing the company to carefully manage its resources. The utility is limiting its power sales on spot markets outside Quebec and using rebates to incite customers to use less electricity in their homes and businesses.

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Last winter, during two multiday cold snaps in January and February, Hydro-Québec halted energy deliveries to three electric utilities in Massachusetts to protect the safety and reliability of its grid. Deliveries stopped a little more than a week after they started under a new 20-year supply contract using a transmission line known as the New England Clean Energy Connect.

Hydro-Québec says it pulled back power deliveries under “emergency reliability curtailments,” and that the prolonged and life-threatening cold weather at the time amounted to a “force majeure” event that suspended its obligations under the U.S. contract. The New England utilities counter that Hydro-Québec is under an obligation to deliver “firm” and “uninterrupted” power under the pact, which they allege it failed to do.

Maxime Aucoin, Hydro-Québec’s executive vice-president and chief financial officer, told reporters on Friday that the utility’s two long-term supply contracts have built-in elasticity mechanisms allowing the power…

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