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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[–] m0darn@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Is it possible to use these power hogs to level demand so we can increase the power generated by Nuclear reactors (in the US portion of the grid) and decrease the utilization of gas turbines?

[–] nik282000@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This can be done without inviting AI and crypto bros (the same people) into Canada. Electric car chargers can be required to follow a charging profile put out by the supply authority, then as people go to bed at night chargers can be ramped up and the base load increased.

[–] m0darn@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

That's something that should be done, but involves a lot of installation points.

Maybe giving industrial power users time of use billing would help shift demand a bit too, but it's not actually that big a deal for BC because hydro power output is quite dynamic. A bigger issue is probably shifting rainfall trends lowering existing reservoirs.