British Columbia proposed legislation to limit how much electricity will be available to artificial intelligence data centers, and moved to permanently ban new cryptocurrency mining projects.
The government of Canada’s third-most populous province will prioritize connections to its power grid for other purposes like mines and natural gas facilities because they provide more jobs and revenue for people in BC, the energy ministry said Monday.
“Other jurisdictions have been challenged to address electricity demands from emerging sectors and, in many cases, have placed significant rate increases on the backs of ratepayers,” the department said Monday.
That’s a reference to US states like Virginia and Maryland, where a proliferation of the power-hungry data centers needed for AI appears to be pushing up citizens’ power bills, according to a Bloomberg analysis. BC “is receiving significant requests for power” from these industries, Energy Minister Adrian Dix said at a press conference.
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Everyone is over thinking this. By having this ban in place, we ensure that people that live in the area have a stable priced supply of electricity. How would you feel when you woke up one day and the bill for your electricity was going to go up because some AI data centre was gobbling up all the supply that is available?
Some will argue…“but they’re paying customers too and we can make a profit!”. Perverse incentives. Electricity is an utility. Not a service. Get that in your heads. Why would we even want tech companies have any say in our utilities when they could possibly become the biggest customer to the power company? What? Are you thinking that those in government will “protect” you? We have all seen what lobbying can do.
While BC has a lot of renewables, but they are still not without a cost (hydro for example floods huge areas). If Alberta was smart (lol), this is where they could transition away from oil over time, alas, they have a plant.
All of you should go do some research on how much electricity these AI data centres are using. The amount is staggering. What’s even crazier is the amount of capital these tech companies have and are willing to deploy to “have it their way” - both physically and politically.