Alberta is attracting an extraordinary wave of data-centre investment, but the numbers need an important qualification: a project in the electricity connection queue is not the same thing as a data centre that has been approved or will actually be built.
As of July 30, 2026, companies were seeking roughly 19,565 megawatts of new data-centre load through the Alberta Electric System Operator’s large-load connection process. For perspective, Alberta’s all-time record electricity demand was 12,785 MW, set in December 2025.
The AESO has so far allocated only 1,200 MW under the first phase of its large-load program: 970 MW to the GLDC project associated with the Meta development in Sturgeon County and 230 MW to the Keephills Data Centre project. The remainder enters the next-stage process.
That distinction matters. Alberta may eventually become one of North America’s major data-centre regions, but the roughly 19.6 GW queue should not be treated as a forecast of what will actually be constructed.
How many data centres already operate in Alberta?
There is no comprehensive official census covering every private, cryptocurrency, edge and enterprise facility. The Alberta government cites a March 2025 GLJ Ltd. inventory identifying 22 named operating facilities, primarily commercial colocation, hosting and telecommunications sites.
Publicly identifiable operating facilities include eStruxture’s CAL-1 and CAL-2 sites in the Calgary region; Equinix CL1, CL2 and CL3 in Calgary; Cologix CGY1; DataHiveTwo; Qu Data Centres facilities in Calgary, Airdrie and Edmonton; 4WEB Edmonton; The Internet Centre; Wolfpaw; Whipcord Edge in Lethbridge; and major compute facilities operated by Hut 8 in Medicine Hat and Drumheller.
These facilities vary dramatically in scale and purpose. Some are conventional multi-tenant colocation centres. Others, including Hut 8’s sites, have historically served cryptocurrency or high-performance computing workloads.
The project changing the scale of the industry
The most consequential development is Meta’s AI-optimized data-centre campus in Sturgeon County, north of Edmonton.
Meta announced more than $13 billion of investment in the facility in July and broke ground July 8. Alberta’s Major Projects database lists the development as under construction, with work extending through 2029.
The campus covers approximately 1,750 acres and is expected to contain about 2.9 million square feet of facilities. Alberta says its eventual power draw could reach approximately 1,800 MW.
The project is being paired with the 932 MW Greenlight Electricity Centre, a natural-gas generating plant backed by Pembina Pipeline, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and Kineticor. Meta also has a long-term 250 MW electricity supply agreement with Capital Power.
The AESO allocated 970 MW of its initial 1,200 MW large-load limit to the GLDC project.
Other projects moving forward
Several other developments have progressed beyond the earliest proposal stage.
- eStruxture CAL-3 — Rocky View County: a large new Calgary-region data-centre development in the High Plains area.
- Blindman Industrial Park — Red Deer County: an AI data-centre development beginning with a smaller first phase and potential expansion.
- Bitdeer Fox Creek — MD of Greenview: a roughly 100 MW computing development associated with the Opal power site.
- Keephills Data Centre — Parkland County: the project received the remaining 230 MW of the AESO’s Phase 1 large-load allocation.
A much larger pipeline of proposed campuses
Behind those projects is a considerably larger collection of announced developments and grid applications.
Among the better-known proposals are Beacon Data Centers projects in Foothills County, Rocky View County, Chestermere, the Edmonton-area Industrial Heartland, Leduc County and Parkland County.
Other major proposals include O’Leary Digital’s Wonder Valley project in the Greenview Industrial Gateway south of Grande Prairie; Malachite One in Yellowhead County; Mihta Askiy northeast of Peace River; Capital Power’s proposed Genesee Data Centre; Diode Ventures’ Goldfinch Technology Park in Wheatland County; the proposed Carstairs Technology Park; Wild Rose Power Hub in Rocky View County; Travers AI Campus in Vulcan County; and HubOne in Wheatland County.
Some individual connection requests are enormous. Public AESO planning information has included proposals measured in hundreds of megawatts and, in several cases, more than 1,000 MW.
Why Alberta?
AI computing requires enormous amounts of reliable electricity. Alberta combines large natural-gas reserves, an established energy industry, available industrial land and a competitive electricity market.
The province has also explicitly adopted a strategy to attract AI data centres while changing its electricity rules to deal with their scale.
For large new loads, Alberta is increasingly emphasizing a bring-your-own-generation model. Under the framework being developed by the province and AESO, projects pairing their demand with new dedicated generation or storage can receive priority in the connection process.
The province says data-centre developers are responsible for their own connection and infrastructure costs rather than shifting those costs onto ordinary electricity customers.
The electricity numbers put the boom in perspective
Three numbers summarize the issue:
- 12,785 MW: Alberta’s record peak electricity demand.
- About 19,565 MW: data-centre load seeking connection as of July 30, 2026.
- 1,200 MW: the AESO’s completed Phase 1 allocation for new large-load connections.
In other words, requested data-centre connections alone exceed the greatest amount of electricity Alberta has ever consumed at one time.
That does not mean Alberta suddenly needs another 19,565 MW of electricity. Many projects are competing proposals, some will build dedicated generation, some will change substantially and others may never proceed.
Not every proposal survives
There are already examples demonstrating the difference between an announcement and a completed project.
Projects can be delayed or stopped by municipal land-use decisions, regulatory requirements, financing, electricity availability or changes in the economics of AI infrastructure. Alberta’s approval process can involve municipalities, the Alberta Utilities Commission and the AESO, depending on the project and how its power is supplied.
The AESO itself has made clear that connection requests are subject to reliability requirements and that the grid cannot simply absorb every proposed project.
What to watch next
The important number is no longer how many megawatts appear in the proposal queue. It is how many projects secure land-use approvals, financing, generation, grid agreements and begin construction.
Meta’s Sturgeon County campus demonstrates that at least one hyperscale project has crossed that threshold. The question now is how many of the dozens of projects behind it will do the same.
Sources: Alberta Electric System Operator large-load program and connection information; Government of Alberta AI Data Centres information and Major Projects Inventory. Figures are current to the dates specified and can change as projects advance, withdraw or modify their applications.
