Alberta regulator approves power plant project for data centre near Edmonton

Alberta’s power regulator has approved a 920-megawatt power-plant project intended to service a large-scale data centre northeast of Edmonton.

The natural-gas-fired plant will be located in Alberta’s Industrial Heartland in Sturgeon County. The Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) approved the application on Friday.

The power plant will be constructed and operated by Heartland Power Generation LP, a wholly owned subsidiary of Beacon Group Holdings Inc., which holds a controlling interest in data-centre developer Beacon Data Centers Inc.

The onsite centre will include four data halls intended to contain artificial-intelligence and high-performance computing facilities, according to documents that the applicant submitted to the AUC on July 17.

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The AUC’s jurisdiction extends only to the power plant. It does not regulate or approve data centres. This part of the project is subject to municipal approval.

“This is certainly the main one that they need to go ahead,” said Terri-Lee Oleniuk, an environmental and regulatory lawyer based in Alberta. While secondary approvals may be needed, “if you have that one, generally you’ll obtain the other ones and you can proceed.”

Data-centre developers generally need provincial approval for power generation, including from the AUC and Alberta Environment. They need municipal approval for the data centre, which may require rezoning and a development permit. Large swaths of the Industrial Heartland however are already zoned for industrial development.

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Construction of the power plant is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026, and the completion date is projected for the final quarter of 2027.

The site is situated close to the Meta hyperscale data centre hub announced in July.

One local landowner and five Indigenous groups registered statements of intent to participate in Alberta Utilities Commission proceedings after the project was submitted to the AUC in December of 2025.

The AUC’s intervenor process allows residents close to the site and First Nations the opportunity to object to large-scale energy projects.

All intervenors save one Indigenous group withdrew their intervenor status by the time the AUC approved the project on Friday. Samson Cree First Nation remained the only active intervenor before the AUC made its decision.