Alberta grid operator’s power cap could thwart province’s AI data

Alberta grid operator’s power cap could thwart province’s AI data-centre ambitions, critics say

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.

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, throu