Future Potential for Hydro-Québec and the Québec electricity market

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what a restructuring of the Québec electricity market could mean for Hydro-Québec and the Province of Québec. The thesis is divided into four main sections. Section one describes the drivers of electricity markets and we get an introduction to the situation in Québec. The environmental aspect of energy is also explained. Section two describes the electricity market in Norway and the Nordic countries, which works as a benchmark in this thesis. Section three shows how a restructured market in Québec could be designed, which impact this would have on electricity prices and hence what potential there is for Hydro-Québec. The last section summarizes the thesis, which shows that revenues from electricity sales can experience a significant increase if there is political will.