Government planning 'hyperscale' $1.5B data centre for National Capital Region

The federal government is in the early planning stages of a project to design and build a large data centre somewhere in the National Capital Region amid “unprecedented” demand on the power grid.

Defence Construction Canada, the Crown corporation responsible for the infrastructure needs of the Department of Defence and Canadian Armed Forces, issued an early notice last week about the project, which is expected to cost at least $1.5 billion to $1.85 billion.

Details at this stage are scarce as the project hasn’t been officially approved by the government.

The notice, which was posted on a website for advertising government contracts, described the planned data centre as 60 megawatts (MW), large enough to meet the City of Ottawa’s definition of a “hyperscale” data centre, or a facility requiring at least 50 MWs of electricity.

The government’s goal with the project, according to the notice, is to “increase its capacity in supporting the mid- to long-term objectives related to operations, security and technology modernization.”

The notice isn’t calling for bids right now, but instead aims to give interested suppliers enough runway to get the necessary security clearance ahead of a potential future bid on a contract to partner with the government in designing and building the data centre.

The project requires a valid “facility security clearance,” which is considered “classified” and allows an organization to send security-screened personnel into restricted worksites on a “need-to-know” basis.

If the project goes ahead, the government expects to start the solicitation process next winter.

The Department of National Defence referred questions about the project to the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), which didn’t respond by deadline.

The data centre, should it go ahead, would be part of a broader trend of large organizations seeking to hook up to Hydro Ottawa’s grid.

At an annual update to city council in June, Hydro Ottawa CEO Bryce Conrad described the “unprecedented” scale of demand.

“It’s no secret that there’s a lot of tension these days around data centres, AI technologies and their tremendous appetite for power,” Conrad told councillors.

As of that June meeting, Hydro Ottawa had received 34 requests over the previous two years from what it called “large-load customers” — referring to organizations such as governments, universities and companies behind data centres.

About 60 per cent of the large-load requests at the time, amounting to 653 MWs, were related to data centres.

Altogether, the requests represented 86 per cent of the average system load for the entire city last year, and most were hoping to connect to the grid within the next two years.

What that means in concrete terms, Conrad said, is simple: “We are being asked to build and support in the next two to three years what has taken us the better of 100 years to build.”

To meet the soaring demand, Hydro Ottawa is spending big on infrastructure.

The organization is currently building one major substation every year, Conrad said, where historically it built one every five years.

As of this summer, the average data centre requesting access to the grid was around 30 MWs, about half the size of the project posted by Defence Construction Canada last week.

Defence Construction Canada and Hydro Ottawa didn’t respond to requests for comment by deadline.

In August, city council unanimously approved a plan to develop a framework for assessing data centre proposals based on their size and potential impacts, including environmental considerations. The framework is to come back to council in 2027 for approval.

In the meantime, staff will notify council if the city receives an application for a “hyperscale” data centre, defined by staff as a facility requiring at least 50 MWs of electricity.

That notice would give councillors an opportunity to consider an interim control bylaw, which could temporarily prevent such a project from moving ahead while the city develops its new policy.

Don’t let algorithms hide the follow-up. If you are tracking this story, make the Ottawa Citizen a preferred source so you get our live updates the next time you search.