The site of a potential AI data centre in the district of Greenview, Alta. Critics argue energy allotment could hinder the development of data centres in the province.
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Alberta’s grid operator is putting an interim limit on the amount of electricity it will provide to new data centres after a massive surge in requests for power from developers. But the approach could thwart the provincial government’s ambition to become a home for the energy-hungry infrastructure that is necessary to run artificial-intelligence models and applications.
The Alberta Electric System Operator said on Wednesday it is allotting 1,200 megawatts of electricity for large-load projects, such as data centres, through to 2028.
But around 29 data-centre projects are requesting to be connected to more than 16,000 megawatts of electricity – which is more than the province’s peak consumption.
