A massive data centre Meta Platforms Inc. is building north of Edmonton will be up and running before its dedicated power source even comes online leaving the tech giant to navigate Alberta’s electricity grid in the interim.
The $13-billion-plus facility, one of the largest data centre investments in Canadian history, is expected to begin operations within two to three years, according to Meta spokesperson Stacey Yip. The catch? The natural gas-fired power plant being built specifically to serve it won’t be ready for another four years.
That plant the Greenlight Electricity Centre is a $4.6-billion joint venture between Pembina Pipeline Corp., Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, and Kineticor Asset Management. Capable of generating 932 megawatts at launch, with room to eventually double that output, it represents a serious long-term energy commitment to the project. But serious doesn’t mean fast.
So what happens in the gap? Meta hasn’t been left scrambling. The company holds rights to connect directly to Alberta’s provincial grid before Greenlight flips its first switch. It’s also open to striking deals with other suppliers to bridge the shortfall. This week, that strategy took a concrete shape Capital Power announced a long-term energy supply agreement that will deliver 250 megawatts to the Meta facility starting in the second half of 2028.
Alberta’s grid operator has also been anticipating exactly this kind of pressure. Last year, it carved out 1,200 megawatts of reserved capacity exclusively for large industrial loads data centres chief among them through 2028. The move was designed to keep the provincial electrical system from buckling under the weight of a sudden wave of tech infrastructure.
The timeline mismatch between Meta’s data centre and its power supply underscores a tension playing out across North America: the explosion of AI-driven computing demand is outpacing the energy infrastructure needed to support it. Alberta, rich in natural gas reserves and increasingly attractive to hyperscale tech investment, finds itself at the centre of that conversation.
For now, Meta appears comfortable threading the needle relying on grid access and interim supply agreements until Greenlight is ready to take over for the long haul.
