Demand for electricity in Ontario is set to soar by 75 per cent in the next couple of decades, far higher than was projected just last year, in part due to a sudden surge in data centres supporting artificial intelligence, the system operator said Wednesday.
The demand has been relatively flat for the past 20 years, but now it is building and shows no signs of levelling off, officials with the Independent Electricity System Operator said in a briefing. Just last year, they expected demand to grow 60 per cent higher by 2050.
Much of that additional pressure will come from industry, such as the three electric-vehicle battery plants that are in the works and associated supply-chain manufacturing. Industrial demand is anticipated to rise by 58 per cent by 2035, adding the equivalent of a city the size of Toronto to the grid, the IESO said.