Data sources & methodology
Every figure in Grid Monitor carries a source line naming where it came from and when. This page is where those lines lead: who publishes each dataset, the terms we use it under, how often it changes, and what it cannot tell you.
Station map coverage
362 stations · 135.8 GW · 87% of Canada's installed capacity
Against Statistics Canada table 25-10-0022-01 (2024, 156.4 GW). Recomputed from the data on every build — see coverage by province.
Coverage tiers
Canada's provinces do not publish the same data. Every region is labelled with the tier it can actually supply, and no region is shown as live when it is not.
Real-time demand, generation mix and price from the system operator.
ON · AB
No real-time feed. Monthly generation by type from Statistics Canada, about two months behind.
BC · QC · SK · MB · NS · NB · NL · PE · YT · NT · NU
Asset inventory and geometry only.
Every region — the floor under the tiers above
Alberta's live data is the pool price only; demand and generation mix need an AESO product the free tier does not include. Manitoba has no live feed and cannot get one: Manitoba Hydro is a Crown utility with no market, and MISO does not publish Manitoba load or mix. What every region does get is the monthly tier: the share of its electricity generated from clean sources, from StatCan 25-10-0015, on the map and in the region panel.
Coverage by province
Mapped station capacity against the official installed total. The map includes stations of 50 MW or more, so no province reaches 100%. The gap is widest where much of the capacity sits in smaller units or in plants built after the station snapshot.
| Region | Stations | Mapped | StatCan 2024 | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | 362 | 135.8 GW | 156.4 GW | 87% |
| Ontario | 95 | 35.5 GW | 42.0 GW | 84% |
| Alberta | 53 | 12.8 GW | 20.2 GW | 64% |
| British Columbia | 53 | 18.3 GW | 18.8 GW | 97% |
| Quebec | 96 | 43.9 GW | 46.3 GW | 95% |
| Saskatchewan | 13 | 4.0 GW | 5.8 GW | 70% |
| Manitoba | 18 | 6.7 GW | 6.8 GW | 99% |
| Nova Scotia | 12 | 2.4 GW | 3.0 GW | 79% |
| New Brunswick | 10 | 3.9 GW | 4.5 GW | 87% |
| Newfoundland & Labrador | 10 | 8.1 GW | 8.2 GW | 98% |
| Prince Edward Island | 2 | 0.2 GW | 0.4 GW | 52% |
| Yukon | 0 | 0.0 GW | 0.1 GW | 0% |
| Northwest Territories | 0 | 0.0 GW | 0.2 GW | 0% |
| Nunavut | 0 | 0.0 GW | 0.1 GW | 0% |
How clean-energy shares are measured
Canada, 2025-08 to 2026-07
66% renewable · 78% non-emitting
Share of electricity generated, Statistics Canada table 25-10-0015-01, last twelve reported months.
- Renewable means hydro, wind, solar, tidal and biomass. Non-emitting adds nuclear. Both are shown, because renewable-only understates grids that run largely on nuclear, such as Ontario's.
- Generation share is the headline. It is the share of the electricity a province generated, from Statistics Canada's monthly generation by type, summed over the last twelve reported months so seasonal hydro swings do not distort it. The data runs about two months behind and is revised; every figure shows its window. It counts generation inside the province, not consumption, so imports are not included. A share between 99.5% and 100% is shown as “>99%”, never rounded up to 100%.
- Capacity share is secondary and is always labelled as capacity. It is computed from the stations on the map (hydro, wind, solar as renewable, hydro, wind, solar, nuclear as non-emitting), with storage left out of both sides because it moves energy rather than producing it. The station data puts coal, oil and biomass in one “Other” group, all counted as emitting, so biomass is understated on this basis only.
- The live Ontario figure on the home page is IESO's hourly generation output — a share of electricity generated, one hour at a time.
Carbon intensity
The official greenhouse-gas intensity of electricity, from Environment and Climate Change Canada's National Inventory Report, 2024 (preliminary). Generated is the emissions of a province's own power plants per kWh they produce; consumed adds line losses and SF₆ from electrical equipment. The map shows the generation figure. Emissions from flooding land for hydro reservoirs are not included.
| Region | Generated | Consumed |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | 102 g | 111 g |
| Ontario | 65 g | 73 g |
| Alberta | 335 g | 346 g |
| British Columbia | 17 g | 18 g |
| Quebec | 2.1 g | 2.6 g |
| Saskatchewan | 542 g | 581 g |
| Manitoba | 2.7 g | 3.0 g |
| Nova Scotia | 586 g | 628 g |
| New Brunswick | 362 g | 376 g |
| Newfoundland & Labrador | 16 g | 17 g |
| Prince Edward Island | 3.2 g | 265 g |
| Yukon | 121 g | 134 g |
| Northwest Territories | 460 g | 490 g |
| Nunavut | 740 g | 760 g |
Grams of CO₂ equivalent per kWh. A small importer can differ sharply between the two: Prince Edward Island generates almost entirely from wind but consumes electricity largely imported from its neighbours.
The carbon map's timeline steps through every year the report publishes, 2005 to 2024 (9 years). 2005 is the baseline of Canada's 2030 target. The report does not publish 2006–09, 2011–14, 2016–18, so the timeline spaces years by date and draws those gaps dashed. The colour bands stay the same in every year, so a change of colour is a change in intensity.
Live emissions estimate (Ontario)
The home page's live “Carbon” figure is a different thing from the official intensity above: an hourly estimate, not a metered value — the live Ontario fuel mix weighted by a fixed factor per fuel — gas 490 gCO₂/kWh, other 180 gCO₂/kWh, and zero at the point of generation for every other fuel. It is labelled as an estimate wherever it appears. Use the official annual figure above for comparisons between provinces.
Review process
Data is collected automatically; anything that asserts something happened — a project milestone, a news story matched to a project — is approved by an analyst before it is published.
Security & data
What we collect. Grid Monitor publishes public data only. There are no accounts and no sign-up, and we hold no customer data.
Analytics. When you open a record or follow a link out, the site adds one to a daily tally for that section and record. No visitor ID, IP address or browser details are sent or stored, and the tallies are deleted after 90 days. If you arrive from the GridWatch newsletter, the campaign name is kept in your browser tab until you close it. Page views and visitor totals are counted with Vercel Web Analytics, which uses no cookies.
Hosting. The site runs on Vercel. Pages are served from Vercel's global network, from the location nearest each reader; server code runs in Vercel's US East region (Washington, D.C.). A cache of the public feeds, and the tallies above, are kept in Upstash Redis in its US East region (Northern Virginia). Both providers offer Canadian regions; we have not moved to them.
Sources
We only use data whose publisher's terms allow it, and we go to the primary publisher rather than a third-party aggregator.
IESO
LiveIESO public reports ↗ — Independent Electricity System Operator (Ontario)
- Used for
- Ontario demand, generation by fuel, zonal price, and the emissions estimate.
- Updates
- Price every 5 minutes; demand and generation hourly
- Terms
- IESO Terms of Use: a licence to use and reproduce the content, on condition that IESO’s copyright notice and Terms-of-Use statement accompany every reproduction.
- Known gaps
- Hourly demand and generation reports trail real time by a few hours; only the 5-minute price is current.
- HOEP was discontinued with the 2025 market renewal; the price shown is the Ontario Zonal Price.
AESO
LiveAESO API ↗ — Alberta Electric System Operator
- Used for
- Alberta pool price.
- Updates
- Pool price hourly
- Terms
- Free developer API, registered key; attributed.
- Known gaps
- Only the pool price is live. Alberta demand, generation mix and intertie flows need the Current Supply Demand product, which the free tier does not include.
NACEI
SnapshotNorth American Cooperation on Energy Information — power plants ↗ — Natural Resources Canada, US DOE and Mexico SENER
- Used for
- Every generating station on the map, the fleet panels, and the installed-capacity clean share.
- Updates
- Periodic; the station snapshot is dated 2015–2017
- Terms
- Free and unrestricted use with acknowledgement of the source.
- Known gaps
- Stations of 50 MW or more only, so small wind and solar are missing.
- Major post-2017 builds (Site C, Muskrat Falls, Keeyask and others) are added by hand with verified coordinates; the list is not exhaustive.
- Coal, oil and biomass share one "Other" category.
- Station status describes the reference date, not today.
Grid Monitor corrections
SnapshotHand-verified station additions and corrections — Grid Monitor analysts, from operator disclosures
- Used for
- Major stations built after the NACEI snapshot (Site C, Keeyask, Muskrat Falls and others) and verified corrections such as Alberta coal-to-gas conversions.
- Updates
- Revised with each station refresh
- Terms
- Our own curation; each row links to its operator.
- Known gaps
- Not exhaustive: smaller recent wind and solar is still missing.
Intertie reference
SnapshotIntertie topology and transfer limits — Compiled from IESO, AESO and NACEI border-crossing data
- Used for
- The intertie overlay and panel: which control areas connect, and their nominal transfer limits.
- Updates
- Revised by hand
- Terms
- Our own compilation of published figures.
- Known gaps
- Topology and nominal limits only — no live flow. Live intertie flows need the AESO Current Supply Demand product; IESO does not publish its schedule in the keyless reports.
StatCan 25-10-0022
SnapshotInstalled plants, annual generating capacity by type of electricity generation (25-10-0022-01) ↗ — Statistics Canada
- Used for
- The official capacity total that the station map is reconciled against.
- Updates
- Annual
- Terms
- Statistics Canada Open Licence — free use with attribution.
- Known gaps
- Annual and published with a lag of about a year.
StatCan 25-10-0015
LiveElectric power generation, monthly generation by type of electricity (25-10-0015-01) ↗ — Statistics Canada
- Used for
- The monthly coverage tier and the clean-energy share map: renewable and non-emitting shares of electricity generated, by province, over the last twelve reported months.
- Updates
- Monthly, about two months behind, and revised; read daily
- Terms
- Statistics Canada Open Licence — free use with attribution.
- Known gaps
- About two months behind real time, and revised after publication.
- Generation within a province, not consumption: imports are not counted, so a small importer such as Prince Edward Island can show a high share of a small total.
- Territorial series can be suppressed for confidentiality; a region missing any month of the window shows no figure rather than a partial year.
ECCC NIR
SnapshotNational Inventory Report — Electricity in Canada: summary and intensity tables ↗ — Environment and Climate Change Canada
- Used for
- The official greenhouse-gas intensity of electricity generated and consumed, by province: the carbon-intensity map and the region panel.
- Updates
- Annual, each April; the latest year is preliminary
- Terms
- Open Government Licence – Canada — free use with attribution.
- Known gaps
- About sixteen months behind: the April 2026 edition ends at 2024, marked preliminary.
- Excludes emissions from flooding land for hydro reservoirs.
- Generation intensity counts in-province generation only; consumption intensity adds losses and SF6, so a small importer such as PEI differs sharply between the two.
OpenStreetMap
SnapshotOpenStreetMap power layer ↗ — OpenStreetMap contributors
- Used for
- High-voltage transmission lines (100 kV and above) and substations.
- Updates
- Continuous upstream; regenerated on demand
- Terms
- Open Database Licence (ODbL) 1.0 — a rendered map needs attribution only.
- Known gaps
- Volunteer-mapped: coverage is uneven and voltage tags are often missing.
- Line segments are not circuits — length in kilometres is the meaningful figure.
Natural Earth
SnapshotNatural Earth 1:10m admin-1 states and provinces ↗ — Natural Earth (NACIS)
- Used for
- Province outlines and the focus mask on the map. No figure is computed from them.
- Updates
- Per release
- Terms
- Public domain.
- Known gaps
- Generalised at 1:10 million: small provinces drift from the basemap coastline at close zoom.
Google News RSS
LiveEnergy and grid news via Google News RSS ↗ — Each article’s own publisher
- Used for
- The news tile and the news page.
- Updates
- Every 15 minutes
- Terms
- Headlines and links only; every article stays with, and links to, its publisher.
- Known gaps
- Curated search queries, not an exhaustive feed of the sector.
GridWatch
LiveGridWatch newsletter ↗ — Action Intel Group
- Used for
- The home page headline.
- Updates
- Weekly
- Terms
- Our own publication.
Events harvest
HarvestEvents Library harvest — About 70 sector organisations (operators, regulators, associations)
- Used for
- The events library and the upcoming-events panel.
- Updates
- Weekly harvest
- Terms
- Public event listings: facts, a summary in our own words and a link back to the organiser; every source’s robots.txt allows the pages we read.
- Known gaps
- Organisers that publish only through JavaScript-rendered pages are not yet harvested.
Jobs harvest
HarvestJobs Board harvest — Utility and operator career sites
- Used for
- The jobs board and the home jobs panel.
- Updates
- Weekly harvest
- Terms
- Public job postings: facts, a summary in our own words and a link back to the employer; every source’s robots.txt allows the pages we read.
- Known gaps
- Only employers whose applicant-tracking system exposes a public listing.
Projects tracker
HarvestInfrastructure projects tracker — Grid Monitor analysts, from public filings and news
- Used for
- Project pages, the home projects panel, and the project layer on the map.
- Updates
- News matched daily; updates applied after analyst review
- Terms
- Our own curation; every claim links to its source.
- Known gaps
- A curated list of tracked projects, not a complete pipeline.
- Map placement: facilities sit on their station coordinates; undecided or undisclosed sites are shown at town or county level and marked approximate; transmission lines are drawn as straight lines between their endpoints, not their routes. Province-wide programmes are listed, not mapped.