Introducing GooseAtlas: Canada's electricity grid on one map
GooseAtlas puts Canada's power plants, transmission, substations, data centres, utility territories, live prices and weather on a single interactive map. Here is what it shows and where the data comes from.
Canada's electricity system is huge, and most of it is invisible. Generating stations, transmission corridors, substations and the utilities that serve each region are spread across public datasets that rarely sit in one place. GooseAtlas pulls those pieces onto a single interactive map so you can see the system, not just read about it.
This post covers what GooseAtlas maps today, where each layer comes from, and how to use it. GooseAtlas is an experimental project by Screaming Power, and every layer is built from public or official sources so you can check the provenance yourself.
GooseAtlas is an open, experimental atlas of Canada's grid. If your team wants deeper data, an embed, or a sponsorship, tell us what you need.
Become a supporter or sponsorWhat the map shows
The atlas draws several independent layers you can toggle on and off:
- Power plants, sized by capacity and coloured by fuel, from the World Resources Institute Global Power Plant Database with additions from OpenStreetMap.
- Transmission lines at 100 kV and above, traced from OpenStreetMap.
- Substations mapped from OpenStreetMap.
- Data centres, a researched set of hyperscale, colocation and related facilities.
- Utility service territories for electricity distribution, including real local distribution company boundaries in Ontario and province-level distributors elsewhere.
- Live wholesale prices for the two provinces that run spot markets, Ontario and Alberta.
- Live and forecast weather plus official watches and warnings, so you can see conditions over the grid.
Because the written data drives the map, you can search a city, region or province and GooseAtlas will show which utility serves it and summarise the plants, capacity and transmission inside the area.
Where the data comes from
Provenance matters, so here are the primary sources behind the layers:
- Power plants: the World Resources Institute Global Power Plant Database.
- Transmission and substations: OpenStreetMap, filtered to higher-voltage infrastructure.
- Live wholesale prices: the Independent Electricity System Operator in Ontario and the Alberta Electric System Operator.
- Weather, watches and warnings: Environment and Climate Change Canada's open data and weather.gc.ca.
- Wind and forecast fields: Open-Meteo.
Who uses it
Anyone who needs to reason about where power is generated, moved and consumed can get value from a single view: operations and planning teams building situational awareness, emergency planners checking which facilities sit under a storm, developers scouting sites, and analysts who want the shape of the system before they open a spreadsheet.
We can go deeper on data, embeds and regional detail. Tell us what would help.
Talk to usHow to read the map
- Toggle layers from the sidebar to focus on plants, transmission, substations, data centres or utility territories.
- Switch the basemap between the dark vector map and satellite imagery.
- Search a place to highlight its boundary and see the serving utility plus an inside-the-area summary.
- Turn on live weather to see wind and official alerts over the grid, and scrub the forecast to see how conditions evolve.
GooseAtlas will keep growing. If a layer or region you need is missing, that feedback shapes what we build next.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. GooseAtlas is a public, experimental atlas by Screaming Power. If you need deeper data or an embed, reach out about supporting or sponsoring the project.
Wholesale prices and weather are live. Infrastructure layers are refreshed on a schedule from their public sources and labelled with their provenance.