B.C. must rethink its power grid for AI revolu­tion

Demand is real

Most people think artificial intelligence is just software. But this framing misses a key point.

AI is physical. It requires vast amounts of electricity delivered reliably and at scale. As AI is increasingly integrated into economic activity, access to electricity will play a bigger role in deciding where investment flows and where productivity rises.

Historically, higher living standards have gone hand in hand with higher energy use per person. There is no example of a high-income country that operates on low per capita energy consumption.

The world's income map is, in large part, an energy map. That's because modern life and production are built on, and are possible, thanks to abundant, reliable, and affordable energy. And electricity is how modern economies convert energy into productive power.

These relationships matter more now as AI becomes a driving force of electricity demand. AI is not weightless. It runs on electricity that feeds data centres and cooling systems delivered through generating stations and transmission lines. The International Energy Agency projects global electricity consumption from data centres will more than double by 2030 and grow at roughly 15 per cent per year this decade, far faster than overall electricity demand.

While data centres still account for a small share of global electricity use, their rapid growth and highly concentrated demand make electricity availability a decisive factor in where AI-related investment occurs and where productivity rises.

But when governments treat rising energy use as a problem rather than a sign of growth, the result is supply constraints, rationing demand, capital moving elsewhere and weaker productivity. In an AI-driven economy, demand does not “adjust.” It relocates.

B.C. has hard-coded this scarcity mindset into law. Bill 31, the Energy Statutes Amendment Act, contains useful steps to advance transmission infrastructure and streamline industrial connections. But it also expands provincial authority to regulate electricity service for certain “listed purposes,” including data processing and AI. The legislation explicitly allows government to set rates, cap capacity, and restrict timing of service.

At the same time, under the Clean Energy Act, the province is moving toward a 100 per cent renewable grid by 2030, with natural-gas-fired generation confined largely to backup and reliability roles. In practice, that takes one of the most scalable sources of electricity off the table just as demand rises.

To be fair, the intent to prevent limited electricity from being absorbed by a handful of power-hungry uses is understandable.

But the signal is broader. At precisely the moment when energy, including electricity, becomes the strategic input to productivity, B.C.'s policy response is to formalize rationing tools. If we have to ration electricity for the computing power that will drive productivity in health care, natural resources, manufacturing, logistics and public services, then we are already planning for decline.

The fix is not complicated, but it does require a change in mindset.

B.C. should amend Bill 31 to focus on expanding capacity rather than allocating scarcity and it should review its electricity market structure to remove barriers to private investment. In practice, that means allowing large users to build or contract their own power and connect it to the grid, using fuel-agnostic supply, rather than relying solely on centralized procurement. Jurisdictions that make it easier to add electricity, regardless of source, will attract investment. Those that do not will watch it go elsewhere.

The prime minister put it bluntly in Davos. He said countries that lack the capacity to fuel themselves and build strength at home will have fewer choices in a more uncertain world. In the AI era, electricity is part of that sovereignty. Jurisdictions that cannot power compute at scale will lose investment and will surrender control over the technologies that drive growth.

The 20th century was built on oil. The 21st will be built on electrons. The jurisdictions that succeed will be the ones that stop treating energy abundance as a liability and start treating it as what it has always been: the foundation of prosperity. The electron is the new oil and B.C. should choose to use it to raise living standards at home.

Ryan Peterson is a local entre­pren­eur, tech exec­ut­ive, exec­ut­ive com­mit­tee mem­ber of the Busi­ness Coun­cil of B.C. and found­ing part­ner of BCBC's project pro­ductiv­ity.

Jairo Yunis is BCBC's dir­ector of policy and project pro­ductiv­ity lead.

As published in the Vancouver Sun on February 6, 2026.