Ontario looks at boosting rules around data centre electricity usage

The provincial government is prioritizing electricity access for some data centres. CTV’s Karis Mapp finds out why.

Ontario could soon become more selective about which data centres are allowed to connect to the province’s energy grid.

A data centre is a facility that includes the computing and storage infrastructure required to run a business. That can include servers, storage systems and networking equipment.

Some data centres have high electricity needs to run not just the computing systems, but also the cooling mechanisms required to keep those systems running.

In an announcement on Wednesday, the province said it is planning to introduce stricter rules and prioritize some data centres within the province.

“That means prioritizing data centres that drive real value to the province: job creation, innovation, economic growth, domestic data security,” said Stephen Lecce, the Minister of Energy and Mines, while visiting Kitchener’s Communitech.

Data centres that are given priority will see their applications to connect to the power grid accelerated.

Meanwhile, the province is also trying to pass a new act, known as the Protect Ontario by Securing Affordable Energy for Generations Act, that would require some centres to gain approval before connecting to the grid. Currently, utilities must connect all data centres, regardless of their economic impact or energy consumption needs.

“That’s not really responsible planning,” Lecce said. “That’s not about protecting the province, especially at a time when others want to see us fail.”

One of the largest drivers of the increasing energy demand in the province can be attributed to artificial intelligence (AI) and the large data centres required to operate the technology.

“I think the Waterloo region has lots of reasons to be optimistic about the next era of tech success,” Sheldon McCormick, CEO of Communitech, said. “Largely, it will be built on artificial intelligence. The government is taking it seriously to protect our digital infrastructure, which is going to be critical to power that next era of AI.”

Provincial officials also said today’s announcement will help protect Canadians’ personal data by ensuring it is hosted in Canada, instead of in other places with weaker privacy legislation.