Major projects included: Between 1944 and 1962, Hydro-Québec's installed capacity increased from 616 to 3,661 MW[7] while lowering residential power rates by half in the Montreal area.

The subsequent election of the Quebec Liberal Party, led by Jean Lesage, marked the beginning of the Quiet Revolution, a period of reform and modernization.

[10] Major projects during this period included: Because of the economic climate, demand for electricity dropped significantly in the early 1980s, which led to structural changes at Hydro-Québec.

[22] In the year 2000 with the adoption of Bill 116, which amended the Act respecting the Régie de l'énergie,[23] to enact the functional separation of Hydro-Québec's various business units.

In recent years, economist Marcel Boyer and businessman Claude Garcia—both associated with the conservative think tank The Montreal Economic Institute—have often raised the issue, claiming that the company could be better managed by the private sector and that the proceeds from a sale would lower public debt.

[29][30] Without going as far as Boyer and Garcia, Mario Dumont, the head of the Action démocratique du Québec, briefly discussed the possibility of selling a minority stake of Hydro-Québec during the 2008 election campaign.

[32] Commenting on the issue on Guy A. Lepage's talk show, former PQ Premier Jacques Parizeau estimated that such an idea would be quite unpopular in public opinion, adding that Hydro-Québec is often seen by Quebecers as a national success story and a source of pride.

[37] Others, like columnist Bertrand Tremblay of Saguenay's Le Quotidien, claim that privatization would signal a drift to the days when Quebec's natural resources were sold in bulk to foreigners at ridiculously low prices.

[53] The non-discriminatory access policy allows a company such as Nalcor to sell some of its share of power from Churchill Falls on the open market in the State of New York using TransÉnergie's network, upon payment of a transmission fee.

This feature of the Quebec network allowed Hydro-Québec to remain unscathed during the Northeast Blackout of August 14, 2003, with the exception of 5 hydro plants on the Ottawa River radially connected to the Ontario grid at the time.

For instance, the Radisson substation links the James Bay project plants to the Nicolet station near Sainte-Eulalie, south of the Saint Lawrence, over 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) away.

[66] According to Jim Robb, a senior executive from Northeast Utilities, New England could meet one third of its Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative commitments with the hydropower coming through this new power line alone.

The division operates an off-grid hydroelectric dam serving communities on the Lower North Shore and 23 small diesel power plants in the Magdalen Islands, in Haute-Mauricie and in Nunavik.

[77] IREQ operates on an annual research budget of approximately C$100 million[78] and specializes in the areas of high voltage, mechanics and thermomechanics, network simulations and calibration.

[79] Research conducted by scientists and engineers at IREQ has helped to extend the life of dams, improve water turbine performance, automate network management and increase the transmission capacity of high voltage power lines.

[80] Another research centre, the Laboratoire des technologies de l'énergie (LTE) in Shawinigan, was opened in 1988[81] to adapt and develop new products while helping industrial customers improve their energy efficiency.

[87][88] The heir to the Couture wheel motor is now marketed by TM4 Electrodynamic Systems, a spin-off established in 1998[89] that has made deals with France's Dassault and Heuliez to develop an electric car, the Cleanova, of which prototypes were built in 2006.

[90] Hydro-Québec announced in early 2009 at the Montreal International Auto Show that its engine had been chosen by Tata Motors to equip a demonstration version of its Indica model, which will be road tested in Norway.

[110] Its mandate is to study and measure the environmental effects of the company, prepare impact assessment, and develop mitigation strategies for new and existing facilities, while conducting research projects in these areas, in cooperation with the scientific community.

In the late 1970s, the company set up a network of 27 monitoring stations to measure the effects of the James Bay Project[112] which provide a wealth of data on northern environments.

[108] Another major environmental concern relates to the population of areas affected by hydroelectric development, specifically the Innu of the North Shore and the Cree and Inuit in Northern Quebec.

Among the reasons cited for the increased adoption of a sedentary lifestyle among these peoples are the establishment of Aboriginal businesses, the introduction of paid labor, and the flooding of traditional trapping and fishing lands by the new reservoirs, along with the operation of social and education services run by the communities themselves under the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement.

[113] Some native communities, particularly the Crees, have come to a point "where they increasingly resemble the industrialized society of the South", notes a Hydro-Québec report summarizing the research conducted in the area between 1970 and 2000.

[118] Additionally, the Innu Nation filed a $4 billion claim against Hydro-Québec in October 2020 to receive compensation for damages caused by the Churchill Falls Generating Station.

[124] The average consumption of residential and agricultural customers is relatively high, at 16,857 kWh per year in 2011,[120] because of the widespread use of electricity as the main source of space (77%) and water heating (90%).

Despite its statutory obligation to sell electric power to every person who so requests, the province has reserved the right to grant large load allocations to companies on a case-by-case basis since 1974.

[145] Several economists, including Université Laval's Jean-Thomas Bernard and Gérard Bélanger, have challenged the government's strategy and argue that sales to large industrial customers are very costly to the Quebec economy.

In an article published in 2008, the researchers estimate that, under the current regime, a job in a new aluminum smelter or an expansion project costs the province between C$255,357 and C$729,653 a year, when taking into consideration the money that could be made by selling the excess electricity on the New York market.

[148] Hydro-Québec sells part of its surplus electricity to neighbouring systems in Canada and the United States under long-term contracts and transactions on the New England, New York and Ontario bulk energy markets.

Their Bayesian network analysis suggests that increases in Quebec’s hydroelectric capacity historically correlate more strongly with domestic demand and market price signals, rather than simply the availability of expanded transmission corridors.