How to Protect Your Energy Bill from Data Center Expansion
By Dom Linic | THE TEAM | theacnteam.com
Something is happening to Alberta's electricity grid that most people have no idea about. And by the time most Albertans figure it out, they will already be paying for it on their monthly energy bill.
Data centers are coming to Alberta. They are coming fast, they are coming large, and the electricity demand they bring with them is unlike anything the province has seen before. If you are an Alberta electricity customer who has never actively chosen your energy supplier, or if you are sitting on a variable or default rate, what happens next in Alberta's power market matters to you directly.
This post is going to explain what is happening, why it is likely to push your electricity costs higher, and the two specific things you can do right now to protect yourself.
What Is Driving This and Why Should You Care
Artificial intelligence requires enormous amounts of power. Every time someone uses an AI tool, runs a search query through a large language model, or streams content through a platform powered by machine learning, electricity is consumed in massive quantities at the data center level. The scale is difficult to comprehend.
The International Energy Agency estimates that global data center electricity consumption will double between 2022 and 2026, surpassing 1,000 terawatt-hours annually. To put that in perspective, Canada's entire electricity consumption in a year is approximately 600 terawatt-hours. Data centers are on track to consume more electricity globally than Canada produces in a year, and they need to put those facilities somewhere.
Alberta has become one of the most attractive destinations in North America for data center development. The reasons are straightforward: available land, a deregulated energy market, relatively lower historical electricity prices, and a provincial government that has been open to large industrial development.
By March 2025, Alberta already had over 10,000 megawatts of proposed data center projects in pending interconnection requests with the Alberta Electric System Operator. Alberta's current peak electricity demand is approximately 12,000 megawatts. The data center projects already in the queue are requesting nearly as much power as the entire province currently uses at its highest point of demand.
The AESO has since capped large load connections at 1,200 megawatts through 2028 to manage grid stability. Two projects have already been approved: the Greenlight Electricity Center developed by Pembina Pipeline and Kineticor, and the Keephills Data Center with TransAlta. Meta's Alberta data center is also in the picture. These are not proposals on paper. These are projects being built right now.
Source: Canada's Climate Institute — How to Integrate AI Data Centres into Canada's Electricity Grids
What Happens to Your Electricity Price When Demand Doubles
Alberta's electricity market is a real-time auction system. Generators offer electricity into the pool and the price is set by the last unit of power needed to meet demand at any given moment. When demand rises faster than new supply can be built, pool prices go up. This is not speculation. It is how the market is designed to work.
Right now, Alberta's electricity prices are historically soft. The average annual wholesale electricity price declined to roughly $44 per megawatt-hour in 2025, its lowest level since 2017, partly because significant new gas, solar, and wind generation was added between 2021 and 2024. That new supply came online just ahead of the data center wave.
That window is closing.
Capital Power, one of Alberta's largest electricity generators, made a striking statement to investors. The company's CEO Avik Dey said he cannot rule out wholesale electricity prices reaching $80 to $90 per megawatt-hour by early 2028. TransAlta's senior executive Chris Fralick said at their March 2026 Investors Day that he expects power prices "in the $85 to $100 per megawatt-hour range." The forward market as of March 2026 was already pricing 2028 electricity at $59 to $63 per megawatt-hour, up significantly from the current $32 average.
If the generator forecasts prove accurate, Alberta's wholesale electricity price could more than double within two years.
What the Alberta Government Is Doing About It
To be fair to the full picture, the Alberta government has attempted to address this. Bill 12, passed in December 2025, introduced a new levy on data centers with electricity capacity of 75 megawatts or more, effective December 31, 2026. The intent is to ensure that large power-intensive facilities bear some of the infrastructure costs associated with their demand rather than shifting all of those costs to residential ratepayers.
This is a step in the right direction. But even the analysts and industry observers who welcome the levy acknowledge that it does not eliminate the price pressure on wholesale electricity that comes from dramatically increased demand hitting a grid that needs time to expand its supply.
The Pembina Institute, one of Canada's leading energy think tanks, noted that in Alberta, data centers would primarily be powered by natural gas because natural gas accounted for 77% of Alberta's electricity supply in 2025. More natural gas generation to meet data center demand means more upward pressure on both electricity and natural gas prices.
The Counterargument and Why It Does Not Change What You Should Do
There are some analysts who argue that data centers could actually help lower electricity prices by adding large, consistent loads that help spread transmission and infrastructure costs across more users. This argument has merit in theory, and it is worth acknowledging honestly.
There is also a legitimate argument that new generation built to serve data centers could add supply to the market and reduce price pressure over time. The Suncor cogeneration example is real: when Suncor added 800 megawatts of cogeneration capacity in 2025, it put downward pressure on pool prices in early 2026.
Source: The Hub — Could Power-Hungry AI Data Centres Actually Make Electricity Cheaper? (August 2026)
Here is why the counterargument does not change what you should do today.
Even in the optimistic scenario where data center development eventually helps add supply and moderate prices, we are looking at a period of 2 to 5 years before that supply comes online at scale. The gap between when data center demand hits the grid and when new supply is built to meet it is where residential electricity customers are most exposed. The forward market is already pricing that gap, and it is pricing it significantly higher than today.
The uncertainty itself is the problem. If you are on a variable or default rate, you are exposed to whatever the market does. If you are on a fixed rate, you are not. That asymmetry is what you need to address right now.
Solution 1: Lock In a Fixed Rate Now, and Make the Term as Long as Possible
The single most effective thing an Alberta electricity or natural gas customer can do right now is lock in a fixed rate with a competitive retailer before wholesale prices begin their anticipated climb.
Through XOOM Energy, available through THE TEAM and ACN, Alberta residential customers can lock in a guaranteed fixed rate on their electricity and natural gas. That rate does not change regardless of what happens to the Alberta Pool price. Not when data center demand pushes wholesale prices to $60 per megawatt-hour. Not when it hits $80. Not if it reaches $100.
The longer the contract term you lock in today, the more protection you have. A longer fixed-rate contract entered today is essentially a hedge against the price increases that generator CEOs are already warning their investors about.
This is not a theoretical benefit. The MSA confirmed in its Rate of Last Resort Report 2025 that residential customers who switched to a competitive fixed rate as of March 1, 2026 could save between $25 and $36 per contract-month compared to the default Rate of Last Resort. That saving exists today before the anticipated data center-driven price increases arrive. Once wholesale prices rise, the gap between what a fixed-rate XOOM customer pays and what a default-rate customer pays will be even larger.
The enrollment process takes less than 5 minutes. There are no enrollment fees and no interruption to service when switching. Customers can enroll through our storefront at acn.xoomenergy.ca/en?p=02672816.
One additional feature worth knowing about: XOOM's Courtesy Rate Change provision allows customers to adjust their rate even while on a fixed plan if market conditions shift in their favour. This means locking in a fixed rate does not mean being stuck if the market moves in an unexpected direction.
Solution 2: Join ACN and THE TEAM to Access the PowerUP Program and Potentially Never Pay for Your Energy Usage Again
This is the part of the data center story that most people will never hear about anywhere else.
There is a way for Albertans to not just protect themselves from rising energy costs, but to potentially eliminate the commodity portion of their energy bill entirely every month. It is called the PowerUP IBO Energy Credit Program, and it is available through ACN and XOOM Energy.
Here is how it works.
When you join ACN as an Independent Business Owner and build a customer base of 12 or more qualified XOOM Energy residential electricity customers, XOOM Energy pays you a monthly bonus equal to the average commodity charges on your customers' bills. That bonus can be applied to cover the commodity portion of your own energy bill.
In practical terms, this means that an ACN IBO who has enrolled 12 qualified XOOM Energy electricity customers may never have to pay the usage portion of their own electricity bill again. The same structure applies to natural gas: 12 or more qualified XOOM Energy residential natural gas customers qualifies you for the gas version of the program.
To be clear about how this is structured: PowerUP is a benefit available to ACN IBOs in good standing who are accredited with XOOM Energy and have an active XOOM Energy account at their own residence. It is not available to regular customers who simply sign up for XOOM. It is specifically a benefit of building a business through ACN.
Think about what that means in the context of the data center story above.
The same wave of data center development that is going to push electricity prices higher for every other Alberta household will have a dramatically reduced impact on an ACN IBO who has built a qualifying customer base. As the commodity portion of electricity bills rises with wholesale prices, the PowerUP benefit rises with it, because it is calculated as a monthly bonus based on what the commodity charges actually are. The protection grows proportionally to the price increase.
This is not a short-term promotion. It is a structural benefit of the ACN business model applied specifically to energy customers.
What to Do Right Now
If you are an Alberta electricity or natural gas customer who has never actively chosen a competitive retailer, you are on the Rate of Last Resort or a variable rate. The MSA confirmed that the ENMAX RoLR rate is forecast to rise from 12.06 cents per kilowatt-hour today to 12.82 cents in the 2027 to 2028 term, and continues rising through 2032. Layer the anticipated data center demand pressure on top of that trajectory and the case for acting now is straightforward.
You have two choices, and they are not mutually exclusive:
Enroll as a XOOM Energy customer today on a fixed rate through our storefront. Lock in your rate before the wholesale market reflects the data center demand that is already being built into the forward curve.
Or join ACN as an IBO through THE TEAM, build a customer base of 12 qualified XOOM Energy residential customers, and access the PowerUP program to offset the commodity portion of your energy costs potentially indefinitely.
If you want to understand either option more clearly, we run a business overview every Wednesday at 6PM MST and every Saturday morning at 9AM and 11AM MST via Zoom. Come and see exactly how this works with no pressure and no commitment.
You can also reach us directly by finding our information on theacnteam.com
The data center wave is coming whether we plan for it or not. The only question is whether rising electricity prices happen to you or whether you position yourself ahead of them.
Dom Linic Senior Vice President, ACN Co-Founder, THE TEAM Edmonton, Alberta
Earnings as an ACN IBO are based solely upon the successful referral of products to customers and their usage of those products. Income and success at ACN are not guaranteed but depend primarily on the individual's persistence, efforts and results of acquiring customers personally and/or through their team. Individuals may not earn income and may lose money as an IBO. PowerUP program eligibility subject to ACN and XOOM Energy terms and conditions. Consult current program documentation for full eligibility requirements.
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