{"id":478991,"date":"2026-02-20T01:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/478991\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T01:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:59:08","slug":"hydro-quebec-proposes-doubling-electricity-rates-for-energy-hungry-data-centres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/478991\/","title":{"rendered":"Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec proposes doubling electricity rates for energy-hungry data centres"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">MONTR\u00c9AL \u2014 Quebec&#8217;s hydro utility is seeking to significantly raise electricity prices for data centres and cryptocurrency operations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec has asked the province&#8217;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<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">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<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">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<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">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 &#8220;better reflect the activity\u2019s energy intensity and limited economic benefits.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">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<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">With the new rates, &#8220;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 18, 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-vbsvxt\">The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTR\u00c9AL \u2014 Quebec&#8217;s hydro utility is seeking to significantly raise electricity prices for data centres and cryptocurrency operations.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[10377,67663,192,157137,221344,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-478991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-data-centres","9":"tag-electricity-prices","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-hydro-quebec","12":"tag-kilowatt-hour","13":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}