The electricity-intensive expertise is each a brand new alternative and downside for the Alberta authorities
Article content material
The spectre of an inflow of information centres coming to Alberta will probably present new difficulties for the province’s electrical energy grid, the CEO of Calgary-based TransAlta stated Tuesday.
The electricity-intensive expertise is each a brand new alternative and downside for the Alberta authorities, which has gone on the offensive in trying to draw corporations to construct their AI hubs within the province.
Commercial 2
Article content material
Although Alberta will be the best-equipped Canadian province to undertake such a problem on account of its deregulated market construction, constructing out these centres could come on the expense of federal decarbonization targets, John Kousinioris, CEO of Calgary-based TransAlta, stated at Power Disruptors: Unite convention on Tuesday, one of many metropolis’s largest annual power sector conferences.
“It’s going to be a problem to hit the entire holistic targets that now we have,” Kousinioris stated throughout a panel dialogue.
The Alberta authorities has not too long ago made a concerted effort to advertise the province as an information centre vacation spot. Expertise Minister Nate Glubish travelled to San Francisco in mid-September to fulfill with tech corporations and traders, together with Meta, Amazon Internet Providers, Microsoft and Salesforce. In doing so, the province is encouraging corporations to companion with electrical energy corporations to supply their very own technology.
The Alberta Electrical System Operator (AESO) has a minimum of six data-centre functions within the early levels of improvement that will use about 3,000 megawatts (MW) of energy. 5 of these AI hubs have been submitted by Calgary-based Beacon Knowledge Centres Inc. (There could also be greater than six functions as a result of the AESO, the utility group liable for working Alberta’s energy grid, doesn’t require tasks to self-identify as knowledge centres.)
Midday Information Roundup
Article content material
Commercial 3
Article content material
Amazon introduced in 2021 it was bringing a cloud computing hub to Calgary, bringing with it $4.3 billion in funding.
Beneficial from Editorial
-
AI knowledge centres, Alberta’s accelerating power wants will enhance want for nuclear to hit web zero, consultants say
-
TC Power eyes knowledge centre development as potential alternative
-
Alberta sizes up $100B knowledge centre alternative, however says ‘convey your personal electrical energy’
-
Large AI knowledge centres price billions are coming — and Alberta desires to steer Canada
Kousinioris stated he’s noticed states within the U.S. which have seen a increase in knowledge centres and confronted electrical energy demand points consequently. Allowing fuel vegetation and wind generators at the moment takes two to a few years on common, he stated, growing the problem of constructing out the facility grid to assist this new technology.
Bringing the grid to net-zero by targets similar to 2035, because the federal authorities has set out in its Clear Power Laws, will probably be a problem — notably whereas protecting electrical energy reasonably priced for customers, he stated.
“It’s straightforward to say we’re coming into into this unprecedented and unbelievably thrilling interval, and we’re going to decarbonize and have the ability to meet the entire electrical energy demand that we’d like. And I feel it’s going to be bloody robust. I hate to say it, I feel it’s going to be laborious to do it as a result of it’ll be laborious to do it in an reasonably priced method,” Kousinioris stated.
Commercial 4
Article content material
Decarbonization can also be not driving funding selections, Kousinioris stated.
“They need 99.9 per cent reliability and so they need velocity. No less than in Alberta, we will’t present that in a inexperienced method proper now.”
Alberta’s electrical energy grid has been strained a number of instances over the previous yr throughout each excessive warmth and chilly occasions. Traders’ prime mandate, Kousinioris stated, is to have dependable and reasonably priced energy.
Although nuclear energy has been floated as an choice to complement the power wants knowledge centres will create — a faraway actuality for Alberta — Kousinioris stated the province would wish to reform its whole electrical energy market. Alberta has an energy-only electrical energy market wherein turbines are solely paid for the power they produce.
“How can we do this in Alberta with our energy-only, price-clearing each hour — you may’t make that funding right here.”
— With recordsdata from Chris Varcoe
Article content material
