Alberta Electric System Operator

Before the data center regulation, if a big industrial load wanted to come and connect to the grid and plug in, as you put it, they just... got in the queue.

That's what the ISO, the Alberta Electric System Operator, the grid operator, has a queue and you just get yourself in the queue and you get your access once you go through the different stages and milestones needed for connection.

But now what with data centers and the massive potential power draw, Alberta initiated this new regulation which says data centers are can only get 1,200 megawatts in the first tranche.

And then it also set up a framework for more data centers, which say, we're going to prioritize those data centers that want to connect to our grid by giving the ones who bring their own generation, that is, build a power plant,

where there's load shedding events and they can respond within 10 minutes to turn down when the system meets a certain level of system stress.

And the Alberta electric system operator will signal to them that they do need to come down and they are compensated for that.

being able to provide that service.

So that's one way.

We're also seeing a lot of change in terms of how this market works.

We are entering and implementing a restructured energy market where those price signals are effectively changing.

We are redesigning the system, and there's a whole bunch of reasons that the Alberta Electric System Operator, the government, has started on this journey.

And it is essentially to respond to the changing grid that we have with more intermittent renewables and that need to ensure that we have that reliability that is maintained in the system and that we're attracting the baseload generation and that really kind of 24-7 energy needs that our province needs.