Energy 101 – Energy usage - Atlantica Centre For Energy

Understanding the energy used in Atlantic Canada is an important step towards understanding energy affordability, reliability, and its emissions.

Many people, media, and even governments sometimes use “energy” and “electricity” interchangeably as if it’s the same thing. It’s not. There are many different types of energy we use each day. In fact, most energy used in the Atlantic provinces is not even from electricity.

For example, in 2021, nuclear energy supplied about 40% of all the electricity generated by NB Power. Uranium represented just 18% of New Brunswick’s primary energy demand.

How is energy use calculated?

The energy we use is typically measured as end-use energy demand, which is the amount of energy consumed by customers (people and most businesses). It could include gasoline for a vehicle, electricity to heat a home, or natural gas used to manufacture items such as landscaping bricks, for example.

But end-use energy demand doesn’t capture all the energy used in a region as a lot of energy is also used while making the energy products customers need.

That’s where primary energy demand comes in. It is the total amount of energy used in a region, including the energy needed to produce end-use energy. This could include the total energy used to make gasoline or electricity.

How are primary energy demand and end-use energy demand different?

To help explain the differences between the two, we can consider natural gas as an example.

Natural gas can be used directly to heat homes and businesses, but is also used to help make electricity, which also heats homes and businesses. In this case:

natural gas used to make electricity would be considered primary demand
the electricity made would be considered end-use demand
natural gas used directly to heat homes and businesses would be counted as both primary and end-use demand. For other types of energy that aren’t transformed from electricity or a fuel before they reach the final consumer, they are counted in both primary and end-use energy demand. Examples include electricity from hydroelectric, wind and solar generation.

How is energy measured?

Different types of energy often use different measures such as megawatts (MW), million British thermal units (MMBtu), etc. The Canada Energy Regulator (CER) typically uses petajoules (PJ) to compare different types of energy on the same basis.

Why is primary demand higher than end-use demand?

Primary energy demand is often much larger than end-use energy demand because when one source of energy is converted to make another, there are losses (second law of thermodynamics).

These losses generally occur because water is heated to make steam to turn turbines (apart from natural gas-powered plants).

For example, most energy used to make electricity from uranium (nuclear), coal, natural gas and other fossil fuels lose about two-thirds (67%) of the raw energy value that goes into their process. These losses happen because they usually use heated water to make steam to turn turbines.

Modern generating equipment and other technologies (e.g. electricity transmission) are increasingly more efficient but will always have energy losses.

Energy imports and exports also play a role in why primary and end-use demands can differ in a province.

What is the end-use energy demand of the Atlantic provinces?

The largest source of end-use energy demand in each of the Atlantic provinces are refined petroleum products (RPPs).

RPPs include gasoline, diesel and home heating oil, and represent 52% of this energy category
Another 24% comes from electricity and 11% from each of natural gas, and biofuels and emerging energy
Electricity demand is consistent across the provinces, while natural gas and biofuel consumption is relatively higher in New Brunswick
RPPs deliver the highest share of end-use energy in Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.

Compared to Canada as a whole, Atlantic Canada uses relatively more RPPs and electricity, but much less natural gas.

What is the primary energy demand of the Atlantic provinces?

The primary energy demand in Atlantic Canada is more diverse from one province to another.

On average, most primary energy comes from refined petroleum products (RPPs) (38%). This varies from a high of 68% on Prince Edward Island to a low of 32% in Newfoundland and Labrador.
22% of primary energy in the region comes from hydroelectric generation (dominated by 56% in Newfoundland and Labrador) and much of which is exported
Other renewables and landfill gas provide 12% of the primary energy demand for the region (27% on Prince Edward Island)
Natural gas meets 12% of the primary energy demand for the region (18% in New Brunswick)
Coal and similar products provide 10% of the region’s primary energy demands (dominated by 25% in Nova Scotia)
Nuclear energy provides an average of 6%, which comes entirely from New Brunswick (18% of the province’s total primary demand)

Nationally, 38% of Canada’s primary energy demand comes from natural gas. The Atlantic provinces use more hydro and coal relative to the rest of the Country.

How is energy used in Atlantic Canada?

The majority of end-use energy demand for Atlantic Canada comes from industrial uses (40%). Transportation requires about 31% of primary energy demand, followed by 19% for residential users and 10% for commercial.

Additional primary energy demand comes mostly from industrial purposes, especially the energy needed or lost when converting energy from one source into another (electricity generation, RPPs, etc.).

Nationally, relatively more end-use is needed by industry and less for transportation (53% and 20%).

How will energy use change as Atlantic Canada moves towards net-zero emissions?

To reach net-zero emission targets, the federal and provincial governments should follow primary and end-use energy demand closely. Some recent federal regulations, including the output-based pricing system requirements, the Clean Fuel Regulations, the Clean Electricity Regulations, and the proposed oil and gas sector emissions cap, all aim to limit carbon emissions across primary and end-use sources.

However, government support programs often focus on reducing residential emissions. While important, most energy use and emissions produced come from industrial emissions, large transportation, and generating fuels and electricity.

To successfully meet emission reduction goals, it is clear that industrial and transportation sectors must use more clean fuels (hydrogen, biofuels) and electricity from non-emitting sources.

For residents, their energy wallet will change as the types of energy and technology they use do. For example, if a family moves from furnace oil to an electric heat pump to warm their home, end-use energy demand will change (less RPPs and more electricity), as will their total energy costs (likely decreasing).