Alberta’s out of power for AI data centres — for now. Where does that leave dozens of pending projects?
CBC
The Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) says it has allocated all its power capacity — under its temporary cap of 1,200 megawatts for large-load projects — to two data centre projects to be developed near Edmonton.
TransAlta’s Keephills project has been allotted 230 megawatts and 970 megawatts has been allocated to a project from Pembina Pipeline that could become a massive Meta AI data centre, according to reporting from The Logic.
“We're excited about the data centre opportunity in Alberta and the meaningful investment it can bring to the province,” a TransAlta spokesperson told CBC News.
The final allocation leaves a long list of 37 remaining data centre proposals currently in AESO’s queue to now either bring their own power generation plans off-grid or wait for Alberta’s provincial grid to catch up to demand. The latter route in particular, one expert says, will likely take several years.
Ryan Li, a professor in the University of Alberta’s department of electrical and computer engineering, said data centres “want to be in operation within a year or maybe two years, but building generation facilities and providing that infrastructure to power those data centres could be a little bit longer than that,” adding that developing new transmission lines alone can take 10 years.
The dozens of projects that were not allocated any of the 1,200 megawatts in what was Phase 1 of AESO’s Data Centre Large Load Integration Program, will now be considered under Phase 2 — a plan that is still under development, AESO said.
But a longer timeline isn’t what the province has hoped for. Almost a year ago, the UCP government launched a strategy with ambitions to attract $100 billion worth of investments in AI data centres within the next five years.
In Premier Danielle Smith’s recent mandate letter to Minister of Affordability and Utilities Nathan Neudorf, Smith tasked him with ensuring that data centre proponents that have “bring your own power” generation plans are fast-tracked through regulatory processes.
While the province’s strategy has successfully attracted dozens of AI data centre projects to the province — including interest to build the world’s largest data centre from celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary — Li said the electricity demand from these centres has quickly outpaced the provincial grid’s power capacity.
“It's just that timeline-wise [the speed of developing grid infrastructure] doesn't really match the speed of the AI data centres’ development,” Li said. “We need to have a very smart way to operate the system so we make sure that we don't cause power quality or reliability issues.”
Data centres aren’t a new concept, but the rapid growth in generative artificial intelligence technology in recent years has fueled demand for hyperscale facilities that can handle the massive computing needs of companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google.
In June, AESO said the demand for electricity to power these proposed projects in Alberta was unprecedented, leading it to issue the 1,200 megawatt interim connection limit.
The remaining 37 data centre projects currently looking to connect to Alberta’s grid are requesting a cumulative 19.4 gigawatts of power, according to AESO. For comparison, that’s almost 14 times more electricity than it takes to power the city of Edmonton.
Li said the high demand for electricity is why the province is pushing for projects that bring their own generation method.
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