CALGARY — Alberta’s grid operator is set to unveil draft rules that would allow a major new tranche of data-centre projects to temporarily tap the province’s power grid while developers build the gas-fired generation required to support them.

The proposal would create a 1.6-gigawatt pool of temporary grid access for developers that commit to bringing their own generation online, offering the first tangible signal of how Alberta hopes to answer a surge in data-centre electricity demand without jeopardizing the reliability of the province’s power grid.

Alberta’s United Conservative government has made clear its goal to make the province a global magnet for AI data centre investment, including the vast, energy-hungry facilities required by hyperscalers. But as data centre proposals poured in, the unanswered question was how the province would accommodate the new demand.

A potential answer has emerged in the proposed rules, outlined in documents quietly posted online last week by the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO), which create a new “bridging” pathway for developers by giving qualifying projects access to the grid for up to three years. That’s a major extension of the 1.2 gigawatts of capped capacity that Alberta originally set aside for large-load customers last year.

The new bridging pool would likely sit atop the 1.2 gigawatts already earmarked, said John Mould, an analyst covering power and utilities at TD Cowen. But the additional capacity would be temporary and contingent on developers demonstrating progress toward bringing new generation online, he added.

AESO did not immediately provide comment attributable to a spokesperson. But the documents posted show that, unlike the firm-load allocations granted under the province’s initial 1.2-gigawatt cap, the new bridging load would be “interruptible.” That means BYOG projects would be first in line for power curtailment if there were a shortfall of supply on Alberta’s grid.

AESO is set to begin consultations on the proposed rules immediately as it works toward an August rollout of a finalized “bring your own generation” (BYOG) framework. Its first public engagement session with stakeholders is set for Wednesday afternoon. The province is moving fast to try to establish itself as an attractive market for investors and developers seeking to power Big Tech’s AI ambitions, said Mould.

“The thing that stood out the most was the timeline,” he said.”They’re looking to operationalize this pretty quickly with a view towards moving the opportunity forward.”

Data-centre developers need transparency on how quickly and easily they’ll be able to deploy computing power, Mould said, adding: “It looks like that’s what AESO is trying to do through this phase.”

AESO said last September that it had received 33 proposals, totalling about 20.7 gigawatts worth of prospective data-centre load. At the time, the grid operator said many of the proposals weren’t fully conceived, and judged only 15, or 4.8 gigawatts’ worth, to be viable. 

The new rules would create a clear path for more data-centre development in the province—a move likely to be hailed by some industry critics who feared Alberta’s initial cap would deter investors.

But for some projects, the strict new development requirements in the plan could also present a significant obstacle: among other things, they demand that data centres secure municipal or county zoning approval in order to remain on the operator’s BYOG projects list.

AESO is limiting the proposed program to gas-fired power generation. For now, renewables and hybrid facilities aren’t eligible. The operator said proposed power facilities must pass the “electrical island” test and be capable of supporting the associated load even if it were isolated from the rest of Alberta’s grid. It said new technologies or performance improvements could expand the types of eligible power generation in the future.

“Qualification criteria will be reviewed for each BYOG intake, and stakeholders can provide input,” the grid operator said.

Qualifying projects under the new process would be granted increasing access to the 1.6-gigawatt bridging pool based on the achievement of key milestones, including filing power plant applications, securing approvals and starting construction.

The document indicates AESO’s new rules were designed with input from a working group that included power companies like Capital Power and TransAlta and, as well as data-centre operators and developers like Beacon Data Centers, eStruxture and Kineticor.

The new rules come as the Alberta Utilities Commission last week approved Greenlight Electricity Centre, a proposed 1.9-gigawatt gas-fired power plant northeast of Edmonton that is expected to supply a large data-centre development. The Logic first reported in October that the facility’s main customer is Meta Platforms. The tech giant is believed to be planning a major AI data-centre campus, which could ultimately scale much larger than the 1.8 gigawatts proposed for Greenlight, according to an analyst report, although Meta has not publicly confirmed those plans.

A final investment decision on Greenlight was due before July, according to previous statements made by project partners Pembina Pipeline Corp. and Kineticor. 

Greenlight was one of just two data-centre projects to receive an allocation under Alberta’s initial 1.2-gigawatt capacity cap for large-load connections.

Update: This story has been updated to add details of the conditions under which users could access the newly allotted power.