The Alberta Utilities Commission has rejected a proposal to construct a natural gas facility in Olds, Alberta, intended to support a large data center development. Synapse Real Estate Corp. had envisioned a complex comprising ten buildings with 1.4 gigawatts of power capacity, equivalent to the energy needs of the City of Edmonton.
Numerous residents in the predominantly agricultural area north of Calgary strongly opposed the project, citing concerns about its proximity to residential and commercial properties within the town limits.
In its ruling, the commission highlighted that the proposed facility would have been too near to the local community and criticized Synapse for not adequately explaining the selection of that specific site. The Alberta government has been actively attracting major technology firms to establish operations in the province, but is emphasizing projects that can self-generate power for data centers to avoid straining the existing power grid.
While the commission is responsible for evaluating the public interest implications of associated power infrastructure, decisions concerning zoning and land usage for data centers are under the jurisdiction of municipalities.