Bell AI Fabric expansion is a missed opportunity for growth of clean energy

CALGARY — DAVID PICKUP, Director of Electricity at the Pembina Institute, made the following statement in response to the expansion of Saskatchewan’s Bell AI Fabric centre.

Yesterday’s announcement from the Saskatchewan and federal governments highlights the growing importance of Canadian AI infrastructure and data sovereignty. With some of the country’s strongest wind and solar resources, Saskatchewan is well positioned to support this growth while modernizing its electricity system. However, the Bell AI Fabric expansion’s reliance on a new large-scale natural gas plant misses that opportunity, risking higher emissions and higher costs while falling short of the ambition outlined in the federal government’s new Responsible Data Centre Development Principles, to which Bell Canada is a signatory.

Saskatchewanians already pay some of the highest electricity rates in the country, and further increases are likely due to the government’s extension of coal-fired generation by several decades. Additional natural gas expansion, as increasingly evidenced in other jurisdictions, risks locking in both higher emissions and increased affordability pressures, raising questions about the province’s long-term electricity strategy.

Leading jurisdictions, including Massachusetts, Ireland, Germany, and Spain among others, are using data centre growth to strengthen grids, expand the supply of clean energy, and deliver broader benefits to consumers and the economy. As governments consider hosting data centres, they have a clear opportunity to use new investment to modernize the grid, but in order to capitalize on this opportunity, they must ensure these projects are powered by the lowest-cost, lowest-emitting energy solutions.

Quick facts

The Bell AI Fabric expansion will rely on a mix of 300 MW of provincial grid power and 900 MW of self-supplied generation under Saskatchewan’s “Bring Your Own Power” framework.
The 900MW of natural gas power to extend the data centre is nearly double the largest power plant in Saskatchewan, the coal-fired Poplar River Power Station (582MW).
Evidence from other jurisdictions is increasingly suggesting that data centre demand risks system-wide impacts if not managed well.
- Recent Pembina Institute analysis shows that Alberta’s new Meta data centre risks adding up to 460 dollars to Albertans’ household energy bills as a result of grid connection policy.
- Natural gas turbine costs — and therefore natural gas power plant costs — have more than doubled since 2021, driven primarily by a supply chain crunch caused by the recent AI data centre boom. Companies are having to wait upwards of four years to get their hands on turbines to be able to start building.
Leading jurisdictions and companies are bringing forward new clean energy together with data centres, showing that these solutions are a credible alternative.
- Massachusetts, Ireland, Germany and Spain are developing rules to ensure that new data centre projects are powered by clean energy, known in the industry as BYONCE (Bring Your Own New Clean Energy).
- Data centre proponents in Texas and Minnesota are developing hybrid supply options, pairing data centres with wind, solar and energy storage, with natural gas and grid connections providing backup.