New BrunswickN.B. Power says it’s not alarmed by the electricity needs of a proposed data centre in the Lorneville area of Saint John but will be looking for flexibility from such centres on their consumption. Utility says plants can ease pressure on grid by shutting down during peak demand periodsJacques Poitras · CBC News · Posted: Nov 20, 2025 5:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 3 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 6 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.N.B. Power chief commercial officer Brad Coady said there is no link between the proposed 400-megawatt natural gas plant it wants to see built in Tantramar and a proposed Saint John data centre’s need for 190 megawatts. (John Collicott/CBC News)N.B. Power says it’s not alarmed by the electricity needs of a proposed data centre in the Lorneville area of Saint John but will be looking for flexibility from such plants on their consumption.A senior executive at the Crown utility also says there is no link between the proposed 400-megawatt natural gas plant it wants to see built in Tantramar and the data centre’s need for 190 megawatts.“It wasn’t anything to do with our planning around the gas plant,” Brad Coady, N.B. Power’s chief commercial officer, said in an interview.“In fact, if you rewind back the record, we were thinking about the gas plant long before I ever heard of any of these data centres that have been in media lately.”Tantramar Green Party MLA Megan Mitton has alleged a link between the controversial plan for the gas plant, to be built by U.S.-based ProEnergy, and the data centre, a partnership between two U.S. companies, VoltaGrid and Beacon AI.“It makes you wonder if this additional demand is why N.B. Power has invited a different American Trump donor’s company to burn fracked gas in Tantramar by 2028,” Mitton said in the legislature earlier this month.Tantramar Green Party MLA Megan Mitton has alleged a link between the controversial proposal for a gas plant in Tantramar and the Saint John data centre proposed by two U.S. companies. (Michel Corriveau / Radio Canada)The data centre would store data for artificial intelligence services, websites, apps and other operations.Proponents say it would use 190 megawatts from its own on-site natural gas generation and 190 megawatts to come from N.B. Power — the latter the equivalent of about half what the utility would get from the gas plant.N.B. Power said when it announced the gas plant that it was needed to head off a potential electricity shortfall three years from now due to population and economic growth.Utility officials told a legislative committee in 2023 that the previous winter they faced an all-time peak demand for electricity that they came perilously close to not being able to meet.WATCH | ‘Can we do flexible arrangements?’: Utility exec on gas plant:N.B. Power seeks flexibility from data centres on electricity demandThe utility says a controversial plan for a Tantramar gas plant is not connected Coady told CBC News that N.B. Power’s “modest growth” forecast for demand, its likeliest scenario, anticipates “fairly stable, fairly flat, low growth” of less than one per cent a year.He said the utility will want agreements with data centres that would have them shut down, or rely exclusively on their own on-site power generation or battery storage, during peak demand periods.“We’re really leaning in to say, ‘Can we do flexible arrangements with these types of customers in a way that makes sense for New Brunswick?’” he said.“If the answer is yes, then we have a pathway ahead. If the answer is no, maybe it’s a check and adjustment, and further conversations need to be had.”Volta Grid CEO Nathan Ough told CBC News the Lorneville data centre’s on-site gas generation could even feed electricity back to the grid when there’s a peak in demand.“Don’t view data centres as this kind of demand hog,” Ough told CBC News.“Now data centres are no longer a pure demand source. They’re a demand-slash-supply source.” Volta Grid CEO Nathan Ough told CBC News the Lorneville data centre’s on-site gas generation could even feed electricity back to the grid when there’s a peak in demand. (Nipun Tiwari/CBC)Coady said that scenario is plausible, “but would require careful co-ordination to orchestrate.”Green Party Leader David Coon says N.B. Power’s forecast of low load growth is at odds with its rationale for the gas plant.“What they’re saying is contradictory because they keep telling us we desperately need this gas plant in Tantramar because the lights are going to go out on the next cold day by 2028. So it doesn’t line up.”He is calling for a new process that would require data centre proposals to get approval from the provincial government and N.B. Power based on their electricity consumption, separate from the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board’s setting of power rates for a large industrial plant.A new report released Tuesday by the North American Electrical Reliability Corporation, a continental regulator that assesses if utilities can meet demand, said that the Maritimes are the only region in Canada where there’s a risk of a shortfall.The region’s “reserve margin” of electricity is below what the Electrical Reliability Corporation considers a level necessary to meet peak demand in extreme conditions, such as winter storms.Under the provincial Electricity Act, N.B. Power is obligated to provide power to any industrial facility setting up in the province. (Silas Brown/CBC News)The report expects peak demand to be slightly lower this winter than last winter, but says it’s still enough to pose a risk given the low reserve margin. The report also identifies data centres as driving a growing demand for electricity in North America, though it doesn’t have specific numbers for New Brunswick or the Maritimes.Under the provincial Electricity Act, N.B. Power is obligated to provide power to any industrial facility setting up in the province.The Progressive Conservative government of Blaine Higgs passed legislation two years ago to exempt crypto mines from that requirement because of the huge amount of electricity they consume.There’s no plan to do the same with data centres, Liberal Energy Minister René Legacy said recently.Coady said N.B. Power was alarmed by the sudden rush to set up crypto mines in the province in 2022 and 2023 because such plants can be transient — setting up quickly and requiring costly new N.B. Power generation, only to potentially leave again after a short time.“The crypto world that that we faced back when the prohibition was put in place is much different than the data centres,” Coady said.“They may seem related, but they’re completely different in terms of investment and stability.”He said with the need to raise power rates to address N.B. Power’s debt, data centres can “spread our costs over more kilowatt hours so it actually lowers the rates or takes pressure off rates for all. That’s the golden opportunity.”Ough said the utility would refuse to service the data centre if it were going to create problems for the overall supply of electricity. “That’s just how the world works,” he said.ABOUT THE AUTHORJacques Poitras has been CBC’s provincial affairs reporter in New Brunswick since 2000. He grew up in Moncton and covered Parliament in Ottawa for the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal. He has reported on every New Brunswick election since 1995 and won awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association, the National Newspaper Awards and Amnesty International. He is also the author of five non-fiction books about New Brunswick politics and history. With files from Mark Leger
N.B. Power wants flexibility from power-hungry data centres
