EVs and AI will send Ontario’s electricity demand soaring, system operator says [Video]

Electricity demand in Ontario is expected to grow by 75 per cent by 2050, which is higher than last year’s projection, the province’s Independent Electricity System Operator said Wednesday. The corporation says the rise in consumption is partly due to electric-vehicle manufacturing and new data centres that support artificial intelligence. CBC’s Lorenda Reddekopp has more.

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.

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