Oct 3, 2026 · 8 min · 9 segments
David Pickup joins Rob to talk about the pros and cons of a new Ai facility in Alberta and how much power this thing actually draws from Albertans. Runs 8m 20s. Aired October 3, 2026.
Rob FaiHostthat could actually help households? There's a number of different things that, you know, can be done through policy.
I mean, from a household point of view, the Premier has talked about locking in rates.
And that is true that, you know, that secures your rate for a certain amount of time.
Ultimately, it's not going to sort of solve the problem in the long term because those costs have to come from somewhere.
But currently in Alberta, those wouldn't be allowed for these new data centers.
They just generate essentially for free when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing.
And so that has a quite different impact on the market compared to the gas generators that are a bit more sensitive to fuel costs and things like that.
And then ultimately, the other thing that could be put in place is flexibility.
And that's really meaning that the data centers have to turn down at certain times or, you know, if they want to connect, then they have to connect in a way that means that the rest of the grid sort of doesn't have some of these impacts that they have to deal with.
Everyone's really kind of figuring out how do we bring on data centers to maximize the economic benefits maximize the sort of industry growth and the jobs associated with that, while minimizing some of these costs and minimizing some of these impacts to consumers.
that could actually help households? There's a number of different things that, you know, can be done through policy.
I mean, from a household point of view, the Premier has talked about locking in rates.
And that is true that, you know, that secures your rate for a certain amount of time.
Ultimately, it's not going to sort of solve the problem in the long term because those costs have to come from somewhere.
But currently in Alberta, those wouldn't be allowed for these new data centers.
They just generate essentially for free when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing.
And so that has a quite different impact on the market compared to the gas generators that are a bit more sensitive to fuel costs and things like that.
And then ultimately, the other thing that could be put in place is flexibility.
And that's really meaning that the data centers have to turn down at certain times or, you know, if they want to connect, then they have to connect in a way that means that the rest of the grid sort of doesn't have some of these impacts that they have to deal with.
Everyone's really kind of figuring out how do we bring on data centers to maximize the economic benefits maximize the sort of industry growth and the jobs associated with that, while minimizing some of these costs and minimizing some of these impacts to consumers.
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