The County of Grande Prairie has approved another data centre, but the five-building project has already prompted something larger: a rethink of how the municipality handles the wave of computing infrastructure seeking a home in Alberta.

The new permit at 732041 Range Road 62 covers five 14,400-SF buildings, along with 15 generators and 15 cooling units in the Emerson Trail Industrial Area. The county has not publicly identified the company behind the project.

It was approved administratively because data processing has been a permitted industrial use under the county’s land use bylaw since 2003. The county said the application had “prompted important discussions about transparency, public input and how projects of this type are considered under the current process.”

Council plans to review those rules. In the meantime, new applications will go to the Municipal Planning Commission and be circulated to neighbouring residents.

Alberta’s Pipeline Starts Hitting The Ground

Grande Prairie is the latest example of an Alberta data centre pipeline moving from investment pitch to actual sites, planning applications and municipal decisions.

Since June 1, at least six major projects or development programs have been announced or moved into public planning processes across the province.

There are indications more could follow. Capital Power, which has an agreement to supply 250 MW to Meta’s $13B, 1-GW Sturgeon County campus, said this week it is in talks with several other proponents.

“Meta is the first to cross the line, but I think multiple hyperscalers have been evaluating Alberta for, I would say, the last 18 months,” CEO Avik Dey told Reuters. “I do feel strongly that we’ve got the potential to be a multi-gigawatt market.”

Other projects are taking shape across the province. Near Edson, Tourmaline Oil subsidiary Emerald Energy Technologies is proposing the Malachite One campus. Teton Digital is pursuing two projects in northern Alberta, while Diode Ventures is planning the 575-acre Goldfinch Technology Park in Wheatland County. FingerMotion is taking a different approach, assembling smaller sites designed to generate their own power.

The rush is running into a basic constraint: electricity.

As of July 30, companies had asked the Alberta Electric System Operator to connect about 19.6 GW of data centre load. Alberta’s record provincewide electricity demand is about 12.8 GW. AESO allocated only 1.2 GW in the first stage of its connection process.

Municipalities are confronting their own limits. Alberta has already launched public consultations as opposition grows around proposed projects, while Rocky View County has tightened its approval process.

In August, the Alberta Utilities Commission rejected a proposed 1.4-GW natural gas plant for the $10B Synapse project in Olds, finding it was too close to the surrounding community.

Grande Prairie is now asking a version of the same question: Alberta has attracted the projects. The harder part is deciding where they can actually be built.