Pembina Pipeline Corp. and two partners have approved the construction of the Greenlight Electricity Centre, a natural gas facility to serve a data center client. The project is estimated to cost $4.6 billion and the 932-megawatt plant is set to be located in Sturgeon County within Alberta’s Industrial Heartland near Edmonton, with operations scheduled to commence in the latter half of 2030. The companies are equipped with permits that could potentially allow for a doubling of the plant’s capacity in the future.
The surge in artificial intelligence and cloud computing has led to an expansion in the scale of data centers, which house the necessary computer hardware to support various technological applications. While the specific data center client has not been disclosed by the province and the companies involved, Alberta has been actively pursuing hyperscale developers like Meta and Google to establish a presence in the region. However, the current electricity grid in Alberta lacks the capacity to accommodate multiple large projects, prompting the prioritization of initiatives that either construct or secure their own power generation.
Premier Danielle Smith highlighted the Greenlight Electricity Centre as a prime example of this strategy during a recent press briefing. Smith emphasized that by requiring data centers to self-generate power and cover associated infrastructure costs, projects like the Greenlight facility would ultimately lead to reduced transmission expenses on utility bills in Alberta.
Pembina’s CEO, Scott Burrows, commended Alberta’s efforts in fostering an environment conducive to projects such as Greenlight. Burrows stated that Alberta’s focus on competitiveness, attracting investments, and promoting energy development has positioned the province as an attractive destination for major industries and sustained growth. He expressed pride in pioneering solutions to meet the substantial power demands of data centers in Alberta and contributing to the development of essential infrastructure for the rapidly expanding industry.
Despite concerns in some Canadian and U.S. communities regarding pollution and noise stemming from data center developments, particularly those incorporating gas plants, Smith assured that the Greenlight project would be situated in an area where industrial expansion has been widely accepted for many years.
The Pembina Institute, an independent clean-energy research organization not affiliated with the energy sector, criticized the reliance on gas-fired power for the Greenlight Energy Centre, labeling it a missed opportunity to leverage more cost-effective renewable energy sources as gas prices escalate. David Pickup, who oversees the institute’s electricity program, pointed out that the current data center regulations in Alberta favor gas-fired power and limit the integration of alternative energy sources, emphasizing the potential benefits of a diversified energy mix to mitigate environmental impacts and costs associated with gas power generation.