It will be four years before a new natural gas-fired power plant north of Edmonton is operating and able to serve the massive data centre Meta Platforms Inc. is planning nearby.

Meta spokesperson Stacey Yip says the tech giant expects the $13-billion-plus data centre will be online in the next two to three years, though no exact timeline has been set.

In the meantime, Meta has rights to connect to Alberta’s grid ahead of the Greenlight Electricity Centre starting up and may enter into agreements with other suppliers if needed.

Last year, Alberta’s grid operator set aside 1,200 megawatts of capacity for large-load projects like data centres until 2028 to ensure the province’s electrical system is not overburdened.

This week Capital Power announced a long-term energy supply agreement for the Meta data centre, with 250 megawatts of electricity available in the second half of 2028.

The $4.6-billion Greenlight Electricity Centre — a partnership between Pembina Pipeline Corp., Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and Kineticor Asset Management — will produce 932 megawatts of power, with the ability to eventually double that.