Hydro-Québec, the largest power utility in Canada, and a major player in the global hydropower industry, has joined the Linux Foundation Energy (LF Energy)—the open-source foundation focused on harnessing the power of collaborative software and hardware technologies to accelerate the energy transition—as a General Member.

LF Energy members provide funding and resources to support the foundation’s mission of building a unified approach to developing non-differentiating code that can enable utilities, grid operators, electric vehicle makers, sophisticated energy buyers and others to develop and implement technologies to transform the power sector.

Hydro-Québec has already collaborated with LF Energy by evaluating the potential for deploying LF Energy projects on its infrastructure. The decision to become a General Member demonstrates Hydro-Québec’s commitment to building and using open source solutions to drive the energy transition forward and ensure interoperability, reliability, and security of the power grid in Québec.

Hydro-Québec is the first North American power utility to join LF Energy. It joins European electrical utilities Alliander (Netherlands), Energinet (Denmark), RTE (France), Statnett (Norway), TenneT (Germany and Netherlands), and Vattenfall (Sweden). Other LF Energy members include technology companies such as Google and Microsoft, energy generators such as Shell, equipment vendors such as Aveva and GE, government agencies such as ENTSO-E and NREL, nonprofits such as EnergyTag and EPRI, and research universities such as Stanford and TU Delft.

Onboarding Hydro-Québec as an LF Energy is a big deal for the power sector in North America, and the energy transition globally. Being able to deeply collaborate with a highly innovative North American utility will provide tremendous value to LF Energy’s portfolio of open source technologies for the sector. We look forward to working more closely with Hydro-Québec as they, like all electric utilities globally, navigate the energy transition to decarbonize operations while ensuring reliability, safety, and affordability.

—LF Energy Executive Director Alex Thornton