Thursday, November 20, 2025
Hydro-Québec has been recognized for its pioneering work to build a sustainable, resilient, and innovation-driven future for Canada based on clean energy.
The innovative work has earned the energy sector leader a Mitacs Innovation Award — Canadian Enterprise Innovator of the Year, presented by Mitacs, a leading innovation organization. Supported by Quebec’s Ministère de l’Économie, de l’Innovation et de l’Énergie, Mitacs connects businesses and researchers with unrivalled access to talent, financial support, and the partnerships needed to turn ideas into impactful innovations. The award was presented at a ceremony at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa on November 17.
Through its innovation hub — the Institut de recherche d’Hydro-Québec (IREQ), founded in 1970 to bring cutting-edge research and development to the energy sector — Hydro-Québec is working to develop next-generation technologies to improve grid reliability, integrate renewable energy sources and accelerate the move away from fossil fuels. Over the past five years, more than 1,600 internships have been co-funded by Hydro-Québec (HQ) and Mitacs, 60 per cent of which were carried out at IREQ. In 2024 alone, IREQ hosted 163 Mitacs internships with students from leading Canadian universities, including Polytechnique Montréal, McGill University, University of Toronto, HEC Montréal and McMaster University.
According to the company, not only does student-led research strengthen Hydro-Québec’s capacity to benefit from emerging fields such as AI, cybersecurity, digital twins, robotics and advanced materials, but it also helps cultivate the next generation of scientific and engineering leaders who will help shape the energy sector’s future.
“Partnering with Mitacs enables Hydro-Québec to connect academic excellence with industrial innovation, accelerating the development of solutions for the energy transition,” said Christian Bélanger, Hydro-Québec senior director for Research and Innovation. “Through this collaboration, we not only strengthen our leadership in clean energy, but also invest in the next generation of Canadian researchers whose cutting-edge work is helping to answer some of the most pressing challenges of our time,” he said.
“These collaborations are essential to achieving Hydro-Québec’s goal of building a sustainable, resilient and innovation-driven future,” explained Bélanger. “Our academic partners share risks and costs, enabling ambitious projects that would be challenging to undertake independently.”
For example, Bélanger said student-led research is helping to overcome challenges related to the integration of renewables into existing grid infrastructure and maintaining stability as energy demand grows. Mitacs researchers are also working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop the digital tools and predictive models needed to improve asset management, optimize maintenance and extend infrastructure lifespan as Canada moves towards smart electrical grids.
Key in this work is a multi-year research initiative aimed at prolonging the longevity of hydroelectric infrastructure assets, where student researchers have successfully developed new methods for early detection of fatigue and corrosion in turbine blades. Their work now feeds directly into digital twin technologies used to detect anomalies and forecast the performance of strategic Hydro-Québec assets.
Another Mitacs project is aimed at using AI algorithms to support real-time fault detection and predictive maintenance of energy grid devices.
The Mitacs Innovation Award — Canadian Enterprise Innovator of the Year recognizes a Mitacs industry partner whose leadership, adoption of burgeoning technology, and support of cutting-edge research and development, demonstrate an ongoing commitment to innovation in Canada. Mitacs programs are supported by funding from the Government of Canada, the Government of Quebec, and other provincial and territorial governments across the country.
Hydro-Québec is one of 11 Mitacs award winners nationally. Additional 2025 award categories include: five winners for Outstanding Innovation, two winners for Research Leadership, one winner for Inclusive Innovator of the Year, and two winners for Canadian Start-Up Innovator of the Year.
In congratulating the winners, Mitacs CEO Dr. Stephen Lucas reflected on the importance of innovation talent in shaping Canada’s future. “At a time when we need to build a stronger and more resilient economy, these eleven innovators and organizations demonstrate what’s possible when we invest in ideas, talent, and innovation,” said Dr. Lucas.
Featured image: (Hydro-Québec)
