{"id":489120,"date":"2026-02-21T04:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T04:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/489120\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T04:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T04:01:12","slug":"hydro-quebec-wants-to-double-electricity-rates-for-energy-hungry-data-centres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/489120\/","title":{"rendered":"Hydro-Quebec wants to double electricity rates for energy-hungry data centres"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Quebec’s hydro utility is seeking to significantly raise electricity prices for data centres and cryptocurrency operations.<\/p>\n

Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec has asked the province’s energy board to hike rates for new data centres to 13 cents per kilowatt hour \u2014 roughly double the price it charges to customers that consume large amounts of power.<\/p>\n

In a news release, the provincially-owned utility says electricity prices for data centres already connected to the grid will rise to the new rate gradually over five years.<\/p>\n

Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec says the new rate will apply to data centres that consume more than 5 megawatts per year, and if accepted by the regulator, will enter into effect in the second half of 2026.<\/p>\n

As well, the utility is asking the regulator to raise prices over three years for blockchain and cryptocurrency operations to 19.5 cents per kilowatt hour to “better reflect the activity’s energy intensity and limited economic benefits.”<\/p>\n

The utility says the changes are meant to ensure data centres and crypto operations cover the costs associated with their high electricity needs and still pay competitive prices.<\/p>\n

With the new rates, “Quebec will now benefit from the full value of its energy resources in a context where data centre electricity use is expected to increase sevenfold by 2035 to over 1,000 megawatts.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-489120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}