The head of Hydro Ottawa says the number of requests to build new data centres in the capital has levelled out, but the utility is still working to build capacity to meet rising demand. In a June presentation to Ottawa City Council, Bryce Conrad, the president and CEO of Ottawa Hydro, said the utility had received 34 requests to connect to the grid over two years from “large load customers.” Conrad said these requests would require nearly 90 per cent of the average amount of power used by the city in the last year. Speaking on 580 CFRA’s Ottawa Now with Kristy Cameron on Thursday, Conrad said the number of requests submitted to Ottawa Hydro from data centres has not continued to rise. “The last number I saw, which was two weeks ago, the number has actually stayed pretty stable,” Conrad said. “A couple of the companies that were kicking around decided that they didn’t want to do it here, and then a couple more have come along to replace them. So, short answer: no, it’s stabilized now. How long that’s good for, I don’t really know.” While the data centre requests have leveled out, Conrad says the proposed projects would still place significant demand on the capital’s grid. “I’m on the public record as saying the sheer number of requests that we’ve received for these very large loads is significant,” he said. “We’re probably being asked to build in the next two or three years that which has taken us about 110 years to build.” Conrad says Ottawa’s grid does not currently have the capacity to accommodate every request, but Ottawa Hydro is working to meet the rising demand. “We’re building a new substation every year to support the growth in the city,” he said. Conrad also notes that many of the requests submitted to Ottawa Hydro were preliminary, or as he called them, “fishing expeditions.” “You’re getting companies coming in and poking around trying to see what we’re capable of doing,” he said. “When they move beyond the fishing to putting down a check on the table and saying we want to order some equipment, we want to build out in this area — that’s when we take them seriously, and that’s when we start to build and plan.” At a press conference in Guelph, Ont. on Thursday, Premier Doug Ford said data centres were the “way of the future” but would need to foot the bill for their own energy costs. With files from CTV’s Ted Raymond and the Canadian Press
