jewhyte / Depositphotos.com
EDMONTON — A $4.6-billion natural gas-fired electricity project is moving ahead in Alberta, with the province highlighting its potential to supply reliable power for data centres while supporting natural gas production and broader growth in the energy sector.
The Greenlight Electricity Centre Limited Partnership has reached a final investment decision on the Greenlight Electricity Centre, a 932-megawatt generating facility planned for Sturgeon County.
Sturgeon County is located in central Alberta, immediately north of Edmonton and about 380 kilometres south of Fort McMurray. Its location within Alberta’s energy and transportation network provides access to natural gas supplies and places the proposed development within reach of the province’s major oilsands and industrial regions.
The project is being developed by partners including Pembina Pipeline, Kineticor Asset Management and Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners.
The Alberta government says the facility is approved to provide electricity to a potential new data centre and represents a capital investment of approximately $4.6 billion.
Construction is expected to support about 1,000 jobs, while the completed facility is projected to employ approximately 30 skilled workers.
The province says natural gas consumed by the generating facility will also produce millions of dollars in royalty revenues.
Beyond supplying the rapidly growing electricity needs of data centres, the development could provide another source of demand for Alberta natural gas while demonstrating how the province’s abundant gas supplies can support new industrial development.
Natural gas-fired generation can provide dispatchable electricity, allowing power production to increase or decrease in response to demand and complement intermittent renewable sources such as wind and solar power.
The Alberta government says projects capable of supplying reliable baseload electricity will be increasingly important as electricity demand grows from artificial intelligence, data centres, industrial development and efforts to reduce emissions across the economy.
Reliable electricity generation could also support further electrification and emissions-reduction initiatives in Alberta’s oil and gas sector, where producers are exploring increased use of electricity to power industrial operations traditionally dependent on direct fossil fuel combustion.
The province says the project was made possible in part by the energy agreement reached between Alberta and Ottawa in 2025, which included changes to federal Clean Electricity Regulations affecting new dispatchable power generation.
Premier Danielle Smith, Affordability and Utilities Minister RJ Sigurdson and Technology and Innovation Minister Nate Glubish said the agreement has created conditions for additional investment in electricity generation while supporting increased oil and natural gas production.
The Greenlight project also falls under Alberta’s “Bring Your Own Power” model for artificial intelligence data centres.
Under the policy, data centre developers are responsible for providing electricity generation and paying for related infrastructure rather than relying entirely on Alberta’s existing electricity system.
The province says the approach is intended to protect grid reliability and electricity affordability while allowing large-scale data centre developments to proceed.
Alberta officials say having major industrial electricity users finance new generation and related infrastructure could reduce pressure on the provincial transmission system and help lower transmission costs borne by other electricity consumers.
The province expects growing demand from artificial intelligence and other electricity-intensive industries to create additional opportunities to use Alberta’s natural gas resources while attracting investment and supporting the gradual development of a lower-emissions energy sector.
Comments