Federal government planning $1.5B hyperscale data centre in National Capital Region

The federal government is in early planning stages for a $1.5 billion to $1.85 billion data centre in the National Capital Region, Defence Construction Canada announced last week. The facility would have a capacity of 60 megawatts — double the average size of other data centres seeking grid access in the city — and meets Ottawa's definition of a hyperscale facility, which requires at least 50 megawatts of electricity.

Defence Construction Canada, the Crown corporation managing infrastructure for the Department of Defence and Canadian Armed Forces, issued an early notice to give interested suppliers time to obtain security clearances before potential future contract bids. The facility would require vendors to hold classified-level security clearance to work on-site. The current stage involves no active bidding; solicitation is expected to begin next winter.

The project emerges amid unprecedented strain on Ottawa's power grid. Hydro Ottawa CEO Bryce Conrad told city councillors in June that the utility has received 34 large-load customer requests over the past two years — roughly 60 per cent of them from data centre operators. Those requests total 653 megawatts of capacity, equivalent to 86 per cent of the city's average system load. Most hopeful to connect within the next two years.

"We are being asked to build and support in the next two to three years what has taken us the better of 100 years to build," Conrad said. Hydro Ottawa currently constructs one major substation per year, compared to its historical rate of one every five years.

The Department of National Defence referred questions to the Communications Security Establishment, which did not respond by deadline. The project status remains unofficial — not yet approved by government — and the next step is supplier preparation ahead of winter bidding.