Alberta has spent decades building an economy around converting energy into products the world wants.
The artificial intelligence boom could add a new one: computing power.
That was one of the messages from a panel at Energy Disruptors: UNITE 2026 in Calgary examining what it will take to build the massive data centres and power infrastructure behind the rapidly expanding AI economy.
Nearly 3,000 industry leaders gathered at the BMO Centre for the two-day summit focused on the collision of energy, technology, infrastructure and geopolitics.
The “Overcoming the Barriers to Build” panel brought together Capital Power Senior Vice President Jason Comandante, Pembina Pipeline Vice President Fabrizio “Fab” Chiacchia, and Bennett Jones Partner Jessica Kennedy, with ARC Energy Executive Director Jackie Forrest moderating.
Their discussion highlighted why Alberta has suddenly emerged as a serious destination for hyperscale data centres — and the power, regulatory, and infrastructure challenges that come with the opportunity.
Alberta’s Speed-to-Power Advantage
For hyperscalers, one factor increasingly matters above almost everything else: how quickly they can secure electricity.
Comandante said developing a new large-scale natural gas power plant can take four to six years, an eternity for technology companies racing to add AI computing capacity.
Alberta entered the AI boom with an unusual advantage: approximately 1.2 gigawatts of excess generation capacity that could be allocated to new large loads.
That created an opportunity to offer something many competing jurisdictions could not — power now.
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“You can allow a hyperscaler or a data center to effectively plug into the grid before the development of new power generation takes place,” Comandante told the audience.
The opportunity is enormous relative to Alberta’s existing electricity system.
Comandante noted that Alberta is roughly a 10-gigawatt power market, while individual hyperscalers increasingly think about data centres in terms of one gigawatt or more.
A one-gigawatt facility can occupy roughly 500 acres and contain several buildings each many times the size of a typical big-box store.
Meta Turns the Opportunity Into Reality
That opportunity is already taking shape through Meta’s $13-billion-plus Sturgeon County data centre, the company’s first in Canada and one of Alberta’s largest-ever technology infrastructure investments.
As Calgary.tech reported when the project was announced in July, Pembina Pipeline, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, and Kineticor are partners in the Greenlight Electricity Centre, a dedicated 932-megawatt natural-gas-fired facility being built in Sturgeon County to provide behind-the-fence power to the Meta development. Pembina is leading the construction-management workstream, with the facility expected to enter service in the second half of 2030.
Capital Power has a separate role in getting Meta online sooner.
The Edmonton-based power producer signed a long-term agreement to supply 250 megawatts of electricity and capacity in support of Meta’s Sturgeon County data centre, with that load expected to begin in the second half of 2028.
The Meta investment may also help attract additional hyperscalers.
Capital Power CEO Avik Dey told Reuters in September that the company was in discussions with several other prospective data centre developers and that Meta’s decision had increased Alberta’s credibility as a destination for large-scale AI infrastructure.
In other words, the companies represented on the Energy Disruptors panel are not simply discussing a theoretical AI-power opportunity. Pembina and Capital Power are already directly involved in supplying the energy infrastructure behind Alberta’s biggest data centre investment to date.
Power Comes With New Challenges
AI demand also raises obvious questions about electricity prices, transmission capacity, and who pays for new infrastructure.
Kennedy told the audience Alberta has an advantage in its long history of approving and regulating large power plants, transmission lines and industrial developments.
But the arrival of data centres at unprecedented scale has required the province to adapt its regulatory framework, including measures intended to ensure that the costs associated with connecting major new loads do not simply fall on existing ratepayers.
More demand could also push wholesale electricity prices higher.
Comandante argued that Alberta’s deregulated market has historically responded to higher prices by attracting investment in new generation. The province’s current excess capacity, he said, is itself the result of generation added following earlier periods of higher prices.
“Are we going to have an increase in power prices? Yes,” he said. “And are they going to come back down again? Absolutely.”
The panel also acknowledged that large-scale expansion will require more natural gas generation, putting additional focus on emissions and carbon-management strategies.
Chiacchia said companies developing gas-fired generation must build those future costs into their economics, including the potential use of carbon capture.
Building an Alberta AI Ecosystem
The economic argument extends beyond the data centres themselves.
Meta expects approximately 3,000 skilled trade workers at peak construction of its Sturgeon County facility and roughly 300 operational jobs once completed.
Chiacchia argued that the impact extends further through the power plants, pipelines, gas production, construction, and services required to support large new sources of electricity demand.
He described the opportunity as creating new “intra-Alberta demand” — turning locally produced natural gas into electricity, and electricity into the digital infrastructure powering AI.
Capital Power also sees potential to build data centres alongside existing generating assets such as Genesee west of Edmonton, where the company controls approximately 26,000 acres.
Comandante told the audience that such developments could eventually create clusters of power generation, data centres, and supporting industries rather than isolated facilities.
There are hurdles. Projects require significant land and water, new gas connections can take years, and community consultation is becoming increasingly important. Kennedy said developers are often beginning engagement well before regulatory applications are filed.
But the panel’s broader message was that the AI infrastructure race represents something Alberta has seen before: a major technology shift creating new demand for the province’s energy expertise.
Comandante compared the moment to industrialization, digitization, and the arrival of the internet.
His advice for Albertans was considerably shorter.
“Be excited,” he said. “And buckle up.”
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