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Pembina Approves $3.25 Billion Alberta Power Plant to Supply Data Center

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Canada's Pembina Pipeline Corporation and its partners have approved construction of a large natural gas-fired power plant in Alberta to supply electricity to a data center, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

The planned Greenlight Electricity Center is a 932-megawatt combined-cycle facility located in Sturgeon County within Alberta's Industrial Heartland. It is being developed to meet rising electricity demand driven by artificial intelligence and cloud computing.

Developers say the site could later be expanded to up to 1,864 megawatts, effectively doubling its generating capacity if additional phases proceed.

The plant is expected to begin operating in the second half of 2030. It will sell power under a long-term tolling agreement, meaning the data center's unnamed customer will pay for capacity and cover fuel and operating costs rather than buying electricity directly from the market.

The facility will use Siemens Energy equipment, including two gas turbines, two steam turbines, and two generators. The combined-cycle design captures waste heat from gas generation and converts it into additional electricity, improving efficiency compared with traditional gas plants.

The project has secured fixed-price equipment and long-term service agreements with Siemens Energy, reducing construction and operating uncertainty.

The project is expected to consume about 150 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, creating new demand for Western Canadian gas production and pipeline infrastructure.

Total project cost is estimated at about 4.6 billion Canadian dollars ($3.35 billion), including financing. Pembina's net investment is expected to be about 2.1 billion Canadian dollars after a land sale to the customer. Ownership is split among Pembina (47.5%), Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners (47.5%), and Kineticor Asset Management (5%).

Once fully operational, the facility is expected to generate about $310 million annually in adjusted earnings for Pembina, while also increasing demand across its natural gas midstream network.

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