NAICS 221122Canadian industry · 6-digitregional market

Electric power distribution

SoftwareUtility Metering, Billing & Customer Systems 2211

This Canadian industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in the distribution of electric power to the individual user or consumer. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A

Establishments · CanadaA: 226
Under 10 employeesA: 25%
Establishments · USA: 8,456
Employment · USA: 354,608
Payroll · USA: $44.6B

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–42712%

5–93013%

10–193415%

20–495524%

50–992812%

100–199178%

200–4992210%

500+136%

Of 226 Canadian establishments with employees, 25% have fewer than ten — an industry where large establishments carry real weight.

Where they areA

Ontario10245%

Alberta6529%

Newfoundland and Labrador157%

Quebec157%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA

Utilities, US · opened 2020

84.2%

1 year

69.7%

3 years

61.6%

5 years

47.2%

10 years

opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 221, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

regional competitionhigh capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 221 Utilities

Regulated monopoly or near it. The openings are at the edge — independent generation, water and wastewater operations, services sold to utilities.

Who sets the price: Regulators, through rate cases; merchant generators take the pool price.
The software it runs on: Billing and customer information systems, metering, outage and asset management — long procurement cycles, few vendors.

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Screened one level up. Nothing is filed at this exact code; the screen for 22112 Electric power transmission, control and distribution covers it.

Operating businessFull studyfiled at 221121

Grid Interconnection & Large-Load Power IntelligenceEnter

Electricity replaced compute as the binding constraint on AI buildout, and the one credible independent tool was acquired out of the market in March 2025.

NAICS 221121Open →

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

Sold across the wider branch

Vertical softwareScreenedfiled at 2211 Electric power generation, transmission and distribution

Utility Metering, Billing & Customer SystemsExecution decides

binding constraint: distribution

Incumbent Oracle Utilities and SAP, with Itron (NASDAQ: ITRI) on the metering side

The buyer is a regulated utility that procures by RFP on a five-to-ten-year cycle with rate-case scrutiny of every dollar, so the sales cycle is measured in years and the reference list is the product. Itron's $2.4B is mostly devices and outcomes rather than CIS licences, which says where the money actually is: in the meter, not the software. Adjacent to the grid-interconnection study at 221121, which reached the opposite verdict on a narrower wedge.

NAICS 22114 vendors named5 sourced figuresOpen →

And what every business buys · 25 generic categories

Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.

Who works here

The occupations employed in Utilities, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Concentrated in this sectorA

Electrical, electronics and computer engineers Mostly one sector 8.7%

Technical electrical trades and electrical power line and telecommunications workers Mostly one sector 8.5%

Supervisors, processing and manufacturing occupations Mostly one sector 8.1%

Managers in manufacturing and utilities One industry 6.3%

Civil and mechanical engineers Mostly one sector 4.8%

Water and rail transport operators and labourers and related occupations Mostly one sector 3.5%

Manufacturing and processing engineers Mostly one sector 3.2%

Plumbers, pipefitters and gas fitters One industry 2.4%

Technical occupations in architecture, drafting, surveying, geomatics and meteorology Mostly one sector 2.2%

Managers in engineering, architecture, science and information systems Mostly one sector 2.1%

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Technical occupations in electronics and electrical engineering Across the economy 5.8%

Technical inspectors and regulatory officers Across the economy 4.6%

Survey, statistical and data entry occupations Across the economy 1.7%

Customer and information services representatives Across the economy 1.3%

Administrative and financial supervisors Across the economy 1.3%

Administrative services managers Across the economy 1.2%

Building maintenance installers, servicers and repairers Across the economy 1.2%

Technical occupations in computer and information systems Across the economy 1.2%

Financial, insurance and related administrative support workers Across the economy 1.1%

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. In a small establishment several of these are usually one person, or an outside provider.

All 162 occupations →

Alongside this industry

This is the most specific level NAICS defines. The other industries under 22112 are its nearest neighbours.

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
221121	Electric bulk power transmission and control	29	Grid Interconnection & Large-Load Power Intelligence