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

A server inside the ThinkOn AI data centre in Ottawa. Photo by Spencer Colby /POSTMEDIA

Article content

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.

Article content

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.

Article content

Article content

Article content

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

Article content

Article content

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.

Article content

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.”

Article content

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.

Article content

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.

Article content

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

Article content

Article content

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

Article content

Article content

Data centres driving ‘unprecedented’ demand for power

Article content

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.

Article content

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

Article content

“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.

Article content

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.

Article content

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

Article content

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.