New Alberta legislation would allow electricity hungry data centres to generate their own power, should the legislature approve the changes.

Staring down a glut of hundreds of applications for access to Alberta’s power grid to build the processing hubs, the provincial government hopes to change legislation to incentivize data centres to bring their own power supplies.

“We've been hard at work trying to make Alberta a destination of choice in North America for this type of investment,” Technology and Innovation Minister Nate Glubish said at a news conference Tuesday morning.

“We see this enormous opportunity to grow our tax base, to grow domestic demand for our natural resources.”

Bill 8, the Utilities Statutes Amendment Act, would also require the builders of data centres to pay for an

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