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| | Alberta Electric System Operator | AESO Lines Up Packed June Stakeholder Calendar Across REM, GRIP, FFR, and Large Load Integration Market & Regulation The AESO published its June engagement schedule, with deadlines and sessions spanning nearly every active file. GRIP feedback is due June 11, followed by a full stakeholder session June 24.
The June 22 session will address market power mitigation design for energy storage and hydro alongside a new Cost of New Entry study — both directly relevant to REM viability for generators.
The June 24 Large Load Integration session introduces the BYOG Phase 2 process for data centre and other large load grid connections. REM IT systems work begins June 23. The FFR+ product design session is set for June 25, and the first REM Foundations e-learning course is now live. | Government of Alberta | Bison Low Carbon Ventures Opens Meadowbrook CCUS Hub Near Legal, Eyes Expansion to 3 Million Tonnes Storage & Emerging Bison Low Carbon Ventures, backed by Japanese investors Marubeni and Mizuho, officially opened Phase 1 of the Meadowbrook Carbon Storage Hub in Sturgeon County. The site is licensed to store up to 500 kilotonnes of CO2 per year initially, with plans to scale to at least 3 million tonnes annually.
The initial investment is roughly $17 million, with future phases projected to reach $150 million. The project operates as both a pipeline-connected hub for large industrial emitters in the Heartland area and a trucked solution for smaller sources — potentially useful for gas-fired generators and industrial facilities facing carbon compliance obligations. | Alberta Utilities Commission | AUC Rewrites Rule 011 for Water Utilities, Effective June 1 Market & Regulation The AUC has replaced Rule 011 in its entirety, with the revised rate application process for water utilities now in effect as of June 1, 2026. The rewrite is accompanied by a guidelines document and a new customer intervention questionnaire.
The intent is to produce more complete utility applications and give customers a clearer path to participate in rate proceedings. For electricity market participants, the direct relevance is limited, but the overhaul reflects the AUC's broader push to modernize its regulatory processes across utility types. | Alberta (General) | Data Centre Proposals Draw Community Opposition Across Alberta as Power, Water, and Land-Use Concerns Mount Market & Regulation Three separate data centre stories this week illustrate the growing friction between Alberta's aggressive pursuit of AI infrastructure and local community resistance. In Brooks, city council approved a new land-use category for data centres despite resident opposition over water, noise, and power demand; a 1,200 MW facility called the Newell Data Centre is among proposals being considered in the region.
Near Langdon in Rocky View County, Chinook Development's proposed $10-billion Wild Rose Power Hub — 194 hectares covering nearly 500 acres of farmland, tying into existing high-voltage transmission — drew near-unanimous opposition at an open house, with residents citing water use of 190,000 litres per day, noise, and loss of agricultural land.
Meanwhile, O'Leary Digital updated its Wonder Valley proposal near Grande Prairie ahead of a June 5 open house: the $70-billion, 64 km² campus has grown to 9 GW of planned on-site generation capacity (up from 7.5 GW), with the company now estimating maximum water demand below the M.D. of Greenview's existing 6 million cubic metre annual licence. Permitting through the AUC and Alberta Environment is slated for 2026, site construction for 2027 if approvals come through, and first-phase operations at 2 GW beginning 2029. All three stories point to a consistent pattern: large loads are moving forward in Alberta's deregulated environment faster than community consultation frameworks can accommodate. | Alberta Pool Price Flatlines at Zero for 34 Hours on Wind Surplus Market & Regulation From roughly 11 p.m. May 30 to 10 a.m. June 1, the AESO pool price sat at $0/MWh for at least 34 consecutive hours before edging to $5.23/MWh. Wind output, running between 45 and 61 percent of Alberta's 5,684 MW grid-scale capacity, was the dominant factor.
Wind and solar bid at zero by design, and when supply exceeds demand with no viable export outlet — the Saskatchewan intertie was inactive and imports from Montana and B.C. were also arriving at zero — the pool price collapses accordingly. For generators carrying fixed costs through debt service, staffing, and operations, extended zero-price periods are not a rounding error; they're a direct challenge to investment viability in an energy-only market. | Alberta Set to Host 90% of Canada's Proposed Data Centre Capacity as York University Research Tallies 96 Hyperscale Projects Electricity New research from York University's Schulich School of Business finds that Canada currently has only five hyperscale data centres, with 96 more announced or under construction. Active capacity nationally stands at 1.6 GW; if all proposed projects are built, that rises to 13.2 GW. Alberta, which holds about 10 percent of active data centre capacity today, would account for roughly 90 percent of all proposed capacity — driven by its deregulated electricity market, available gas-fired generation, cheap land, and a provincial government actively fast-tracking approvals.
The new facilities being built are roughly ten times the size of previous generations. Public opposition is intensifying: Angus Reid polling found 68 percent of Canadians would oppose a large AI data centre near their home. The article notes that jurisdictions with abundant renewables — Quebec, B.C., Ontario — have constrained grid access, effectively redirecting investment to Alberta regardless of emissions profile. | Bitdeer Breaks Ground on 101 MW Gas-Fired Compute Facility Near Fox Creek Under BYOG Framework Generation & Infrastructure Bitdeer (NASDAQ: BTDR) has started construction on a $155 million (C$214 million) combined power and data centre facility near Fox Creek, originally permitted by Kiwetinohk Energy Corp. and acquired by Bitdeer in February 2025. The site pairs a 101 MW natural gas plant with roughly 100 MW of computing capacity, operating in a behind-the-fence configuration under Alberta's BYOG framework.
A 99 MW AESO grid interconnection allows the facility to curtail compute workloads and dispatch power back to the grid during peak demand. The project will initially support bitcoin mining but is designed to accommodate AI and high-performance computing workloads. Energization is targeted for Q2 2027. This is a concrete example of BYOG working as intended: a private generator adding dispatchable capacity while maintaining grid connectivity — the kind of dual-purpose asset that serves Alberta's reliability needs while advancing industrial development. | Western Canada | B.C. Hydro Abandons Gas Phase-Out, Seeks to Retain 395 MW of Gas Capacity to Cover 2030 Shortfall Policy & Transition B.C. Hydro has filed with the B.C. Utilities Commission to extend operations at two natural gas plants — the 275 MW Island Generation facility in Campbell River and the 120 MW McMahon plant near Fort St. John — to cover a projected 500 MW shortfall by 2030. The utility is in confidential negotiations to continue purchasing power from both plants, which together would fill 400 MW of the gap.
The Times Colonist separately reports that Hydro is in talks to acquire the Island Generation plant outright from Edmonton-based Capital Power. This reverses B.C.'s stated policy of eliminating fossil-fuel generation by 2030, driven by AI data centre demand, new mining activity worth $4 billion in provincial GDP, and the physical limits of integrating intermittent renewables without dispatchable backup. For Alberta generators and investors, B.C.'s predicament is a useful data point: regulated markets that constrained gas generation are now walking it back, while Alberta's market-based approach has kept dispatchable capacity in the mix. | Ming Yang Signs MOU with Oceanic Wind for 1.5–2 GW Offshore Project in Hecate Strait Renewables Chinese turbine manufacturer Ming Yang Smart Energy has entered a non-binding MOU with Oceanic Wind Energy for a 1.5–2 GW offshore wind project in B.C.'s Hecate Strait, co-developed with Coast Tsimshian Enterprises. The MOU covers a 90-day due diligence period to assess equity investment, debt financing, and strategic partnership terms.
The Hecate Strait is one of the strongest wind resources globally, with average speeds exceeding 10 m/s and winter capacity factors reaching 65%. Environmental approvals work has been engaged through Falkirk Environmental Consultants. The project has no direct Alberta market implications at this stage, but it signals continued offshore wind momentum in B.C. at a time when that province's grid capacity constraints are redirecting data centre investment to Alberta. | Canada | Federal Electricity Strategy Targets Grid Doubling by 2050, Endorses Gas as Structural Backstop, and Carves Out Alberta's CER Challenge Policy & Transition McMillan LLP published a detailed analysis of Ottawa's May 14 national electricity strategy, which projects doubling Canada's electricity output by 2050 and growing interprovincial transmission capacity by up to 70%. The financing toolkit is substantial: investment tax credits, at least $20 billion through the Canada Infrastructure Bank, a doubled $10 billion Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program, and a new $25 billion Canada Strong sovereign wealth fund.
Critically for Alberta, the strategy explicitly endorses natural gas as a structural feature of the long-term electricity mix and proposes Clean Electricity Regulation amendments designed to reduce stranded-asset risk for existing gas generators. The strategy was released alongside a Canada-Alberta Implementation Agreement establishing a joint Electricity Working Group, while allowing Alberta to continue its constitutional challenge to the CER. The Clean Electricity ITC is also being extended to major intra-provincial high-voltage transmission — potentially significant for grid buildout economics. Roughly 130,000 skilled workers will be needed by 2050, and labour supply is identified as a genuine execution risk. | NB Power Auditor Flags $55M Penalty Exposure, Governance Failures on $2.8B Gas Plant Generation & Infrastructure New Brunswick's auditor general Paul Martin released a report June 2 finding that NB Power made a series of governance failures in procuring its planned 500 MW Renewable Integration and Grid Security gas plant, pegged at a final cost of $2.8 billion. The utility signed a 25-year operations deal with U.S. firm ProEnergy in July 2025 — before the provincial Energy and Utilities Board had approved the project — exposing NB Power to $55.1 million in potential early-construction penalties if the regulator had denied it.
Other criticisms include selecting dual-fuel turbines without studying alternatives, assuming most project risk as sole owner, and failing to formalize an Indigenous equity partnership with the North Shore Mi'kmaq Tribal Council. The plant received regulatory approval the week of the report but still requires government sign-off pending environmental assessment. | US & The World | MRO Flags Wind Generation Uncertainty in 2026 Summer Reliability Assessment Electricity The Midwest Reliability Organization warned in its 2026 summer assessment that widespread wind generation across the MRO footprint — which includes Manitoba Hydro and SaskPower alongside MISO and SPP regions — will create operational uncertainty for grid operators this summer. The concern mirrors what Alberta experienced during its 34-hour zero-price episode in late May: high wind penetration creates both surplus conditions and unpredictable output swings that challenge real-time dispatch. For Alberta, where wind capacity continues to grow, the MRO's warning is a relevant regional signal about reliability management under high-renewables scenarios. | TransAlta Buys Two Colorado Gas Peakers from Blackstone for US$1 Billion Generation & Infrastructure TransAlta has agreed to acquire Mountain Peak Power and Canyon Peak Power near Denver from Blackstone for approximately US$1 billion, consisting of US$750 million in assumed project-level debt and US$250 million in equity raised through a C$350 million bought deal at $19.20 per share. The two facilities have a combined capacity of 318 MW and are fully contracted under tolling agreements with investment-grade counterparties for more than 25 years, expected to generate US$80 million in annual adjusted EBITDA and US$33 million in free cash flow.
CEO Joel Hunter cited the assets as a source of contracted cash flows for reinvestment in Centralia and Alberta data centre opportunities. The deal signals that TransAlta is actively building its U.S. gas peaking portfolio at a time when dispatchable capacity is commanding premium long-term contracts — a market dynamic directly relevant to how Alberta generators should be thinking about their own asset positioning. | IPPSA's Mandate IPPSA's mission is to convene industry, providing information, resources, and a forum for knowledge sharing, and to create opportunities for dialogue, collaboration, and education. This newsletter is meant to inform members but not advocate for specific outcomes. We always appreciate your feedback at info@ippsa.com. | Independent Power Producers Society of Alberta · info@ippsa.com
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