All figures as of August 2026. I own Fortis. This is analysis, not personalized advice. This article was created with AI assistance and is a direct transcript of the Youtube video below.
Everyone is arguing about which AI company is going to win the race. Meanwhile, there’s more than 20,000 MW of potential data centre load sitting in Alberta’s grid connection process alone, and the AESO has allocated about 1,200 MW of near-term capacity. Demand is not the question. The companies that own the power infrastructure win no matter which chatbot comes out on top.
That’s the backdrop for this ranking: six of the most popular utility stocks in Canada, put head to head and ranked S tier to E tier. Fortis (FTS), Hydro One (H), Emera (EMA), Canadian Utilities (CU), Brookfield Renewable (BEP.UN) and Capital Power (CPX). Four regulated utilities, one renewable giant, one independent power producer. One per tier, so I had to make some hard calls, and I’ll tell you now: this list features two Dividend Kings, and one of those streaks is not what it looks like.
Utilities 101: the three ideas that explain the whole sector
Before the rankings, three concepts, because once you understand them the rankings almost write themselves.
Regulated means guaranteed, but capped. These companies own the poles, wires, pipes and other essential infrastructure serving customers. In exchange for operating these regulated monopolies, regulators approve the rates they can charge, including an allowed return of roughly 9% to 10% on the equity invested in their approved rate base. Essential infrastructure, regulated returns, predictable cash flow. That’s why many utility dividend streaks run for decades.
The rate base is the most important number in this article. It’s the pile of poles, wires and pipes a utility earns its government-set return on. Build more infrastructure, the pile grows, and profit grows almost automatically. Rate base growth IS the growth rate of a regulated utility. When you see one of these companies raising its capital plan, that’s future profit being locked in.
Utilities move opposite to interest rates. Safe, bond-like profits make these stocks trade like bonds. When rates rise, they fall; when rates fall, they rally. Fortis against the Bank of Canada overnight rate over the past decade is almost a mirror image, and the most leveraged names feel it hardest. Keep that in mind for two of the stocks below.
E tier: Canadian Utilities (CU): the vanity streak
Canadian Utilities owns Canada’s longest dividend growth streak: 54 consecutive years of raises. Sounds like royalty. Here’s the problem: those raises have been running around 1% a year. That’s below inflation, which means you’ve been losing purchasing power owning it. A raise below inflation is a cut with better manners. The streak measures consistency, not generosity, and at this point it’s effectively a vanity number.
The business itself is about 72% Alberta regulated utilities, 20% Australian gas distribution (quietly the growth star), and 8% non-regulated. And the cardinal sin: over the past decade they actually shrank the rate base by selling assets and not redeploying the capital fast enough. For a regulated utility, that’s the one thing you cannot do.
There are signs of life. Earnings grew 8% in the first half of 2026, the $2.9 billion Yellowhead pipeline is the largest project in ATCO history (100% customer contracted, in service late 2027), and Alberta’s data centre boom could be a real kicker. But the Southern family holds voting control through ATCO, so if the turnaround stalls, shareholders can’t force change. Potential turnaround, but I’m not convinced yet. E tier, and it wasn’t close.
D tier: Emera (EMA): a Florida growth story with a debt problem
Emera is headquartered in Halifax but it’s really a US play: about two thirds of the company is Tampa Electric and Peoples Gas in Florida, acquired in a $10 billion deal in 2016 that it’s still paying down today. It has the worst balance sheet of the group, around 6.4 times leverage, living on the edge of a credit downgrade.
Here’s the conflict. Florida is the single best place in North America to be a regulated utility right now: the rate base is growing from about $26 billion in 2024 toward $40 billion by 2030, roughly 7.4% a year, the fastest regulated growth on this list. Meanwhile Nova Scotia, about a quarter of earnings, has turned hostile: the province passed a law capping power rates, and a ransomware attack exposed data on roughly 280,000 customers.
The repair plan is working. Everything outside Florida and Atlantic Canada is being sold, including New Mexico Gas for US$1.25 billion, and credit outlooks are back to stable. But dividend growth is only about 1% while the balance sheet heals, and for me a regulated utility that can’t grow its dividend is missing the point of owning one. Highest rate-base growth, weakest balance sheet. They offset. D tier.
C tier: Brookfield Renewable (BEP.UN): the AI power arms dealer
The largest renewable platform on the planet: about 48 GW of capacity across 25 countries, adding roughly 10 GW a year, with hydro as the crown jewel. Hydro matters because it’s the rare renewable that runs around the clock. Solar needs the sun, wind needs the wind, and a data centre needs power 24/7. That’s exactly why the biggest AI power deals on Earth are signed with Brookfield: a Microsoft framework for 10.5+ GW and a Google hydro deal for up to 3 GW.
You get a ~4.5% yield with 5 to 9% annual distribution growth, 90% of revenue contracted long-term, and the famous Brookfield capital recycling machine (buy, de-risk, sell mature assets at a premium, redeploy) that has compounded cash flow around 10% a year for over a decade.
So why C tier? Rate sensitivity. When rates doubled in 2022-23, this stock got cut in half, the worst drawdown of the six. It carries the most leverage in the group, renewables are a political football (capital flows change with whoever holds power), and the structure is convoluted, though the merger of BEP.UN and BEPC into one corporation in Q4 2026 helps. Company quality alone, this is S tier. As a stock, with one slot per tier, C is where it lands.
B tier: Capital Power (CPX): the riskiest, and the decade’s best return
Capital Power is the one company here that isn’t a regulated utility. It’s an independent power producer: it owns about 12 GW of mostly natural gas power plants and sells the electricity through market sales, hedges and long-term contracts. No guaranteed returns, which is why it trades cheaper, and why it’s the riskiest name on this list.
Quick valuation note for IPPs: don’t use P/E. Power producers carry big non-cash hits that distort earnings. Use adjusted funds from operations, the real cash the business generates. They report it themselves.
The story here is AI upside with receipts. On July 8, 2026, Capital Power signed a 10+ year contract to supply 250 MW to a Meta data centre in Alberta, from existing plants, requiring zero new capital. There’s a further 1 to 1.5 GW data centre campus in negotiation at Genesee: nothing signed, but if it signs, the stock re-rates. Add a US$2.2 billion expansion into two big gas plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio (about 60% of operations are now in the US), 8 to 10% annual cash flow growth, a 4.3% yield with 13 straight years of raises, and you have the cheapest way to own the AI power boom.
The other side: about 5 GW of merchant exposure across Alberta and the US, and Alberta’s electricity market is currently oversupplied. When hedges roll off, the market sets the price. Lowest credit rating of the six (BBB-), fossil-heavy fleet, and beyond Meta the data centre story is still mostly promise. Highest potential growth, highest risk. B tier.
A tier: Hydro One (H): the safest growth story in Canada
Spoiler: I think this is the best business on this list. Hydro One owns Ontario’s electricity transmission and distribution, the lowest-risk monopoly in Canada. It owns the wires, not the power plants; 99% of the business is regulated; it gets paid on the size of its network, not on how much power flows, so there are no fuel costs and no commodity risk. The province of Ontario owns just under half of it, and the dividend has been raised every year since the 2015 IPO.
The growth story is remarkable for something this safe. Ontario’s grid operator expects electricity demand to grow 60% by 2050, which gives Hydro One free rein to grow the rate base for decades. On top of that, it has quietly bought 90 small local utilities since 1999, an acquisition runway almost nobody prices in. And here’s the stat that surprises everyone: over the past five years, Hydro One has beaten every other utility on this list, up roughly 78%. The safest business was also the best performer.
Why not S tier? Valuation, and concentration. At around 26 times earnings it’s the most expensive regulated utility here, you’re exposed to one province and one regulator (which refused about $65 million of the roughly $223 million in ice storm costs this year), and the government has interfered before. A top-quality utility, absolutely no question. A tier, and it nearly took the crown.
S tier: Fortis (FTS): the king of Canadian utilities
Full disclosure: Fortis was one of the very first stocks I ever bought, back in 2009, and I have no intention of ever selling it. But the numbers make this case on their own.
Fortis is ten regulated utilities across Canada, the US and the Caribbean, with about 65% of the business in the United States, led by the ITC transmission network across eight states. It earns government-set returns of roughly 9.5 to 10.7%, grows the rate base about 7% a year, and the capital plan keeps getting raised: $25 billion, then $26 billion, now $28.8 billion. Every raise is future rate base, and future rate base is future profit.
And this is the Dividend King that earns the title. 52 consecutive years of raises, growing 4 to 6% a year, roughly double inflation. While Canadian Utilities’ 54-year streak has been eroding your purchasing power, Fortis has been compounding it. Both are Kings. Only one still pays you like it.
The upside from here isn’t in the plan yet: an 8 to 10 GW queue of data centres asking to connect at Tucson Electric in Arizona, LNG expansion in BC, and billions in US grid spending accelerating (Bank of America alone pledged $250 billion toward US infrastructure). The bear case is real but mild: mid-single-digit growth, a premium valuation, and the same rate sensitivity as the whole sector. The safest, most visible growth in the group. S tier, and the closest call of the video was Fortis versus Hydro One; five decades of consistency was the tiebreaker.
The bottom line
| Tier | Stock | One line |
|---|---|---|
| S | Fortis (FTS) | 52 years of real raises and a capital plan that keeps growing |
| A | Hydro One (H) | The safest growth story in Canada, and quietly the best performer |
| B | Capital Power (CPX) | The cheapest way to own the AI power boom, with real risk |
| C | Brookfield Renewable (BEP.UN) | The biggest renewable platform on Earth, marked down by rates |
| D | Emera (EMA) | Florida growth engine, worst balance sheet of the bunch |
| E | Canadian Utilities (CU) | 54 years of raises, still waiting on real growth |
The questions I get most:
Aren’t utilities boring? That’s the point. With 20,000+ MW queued in Alberta and Ontario demand headed up 60% by 2050, boring companies that own the supply win the AI race by default. You won’t get AI-stock returns, but you get steady growth and yield from companies that can’t lose.
What happens if rates keep falling? These stocks rally. The whole sector trades opposite to interest rates, and the most rate-sensitive names (Brookfield Renewable especially) have the most torque.
Is the CU streak really that bad? The streak is real. The raises are ~1% a year against ~2-3% inflation. You decide what a streak is worth when it doesn’t keep up with your cost of living.
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