Manitoba
Manitoba Hydro; Public Utilities Board regulates rates
Closed to unsolicited large load: government now picks which projects get power, and it has already said no to at least one data centre.
8MW
energized in Manitoba
1 with published capacity
Publishes nothing project level. No. Manitoba has nothing comparable to AESO's monthly Connection Project List. Manitoba Hydro publishes no project-level list of pending or approved large-load connections, no project IDs, no per-project MW, no requested in-service dates, no queue positions, and no aggregate MW total for the large-load pipeline.
The record
- Operator detail
- Manitoba Hydro is the connecting utility, confirmed, with an important correction: since 1 September 2025 it is no longer the sole approver. The Manitoba Hydro Act s.22 gives Manitoba Hydro exclusive authority to supply power in Manitoba (consolidation current to 30 July 2026, https://web2.gov.mb.ca/laws/statutes/ccsm/h190.php?lang=en).
- Route to power
- A 100+ MW data centre is a "large supply of power" (threshold 5 MW; two or more projects are aggregated where Manitoba Hydro is satisfied they are in substance a single project and 5+ MW is requested after 31 August 2025, M.R. 68/2025). The route today: 1. Application. Complete Manitoba Hydro's large power supply request form (legal entity, site, construction start, power factor, peak demand in MW, annual energy in GWh/yr, gas requirements, efficiency measures, employment and impact) and email it with supporting documents to LocateInManitoba@hydro.mb.ca. A request is only "made" once the customer has provided all information the corporation requires (M.R. 68/2025 s.2).
- Typical timeline
- No public application-to-energization figure exists for a 100+ MW load in Manitoba. Manitoba Hydro publishes only the study stages: Load Interconnection Evaluation Study 3-5 months, then customer-funded Detailed Engineering Study 6-8 months (roughly 9-13 months of study before a construction agreement), after which "service design and installation" timing "varies based on customer requirements and environmental licen…
- Binding constraint
- Discretionary ministerial allocation plus a hard capacity wall, not a numeric cap. There is no Manitoba equivalent of Alberta's 1,200 MW interim cap and no Quebec-style block allocation call for data centre load. The binding constraints, in order: 1. Ministerial priority gate (in force 1 Sept 2025). Every >5 MW request is ranked low/medium/high by the Minister; low-priority requests are deferred behind all medium and high requests and served only if capacity would not be impaired; no appeal. M.R. 68/2025 ss.7-13. This is a political allocation decision, not a technical one, and no allocated volume is published.
- Behind the fence
- Legally possible, but it does not buy you a way around the province, and Manitoba has just demonstrated that. What is allowed. Manitoba Hydro's s.22 exclusive authority is an authority to supply power to persons in Manitoba, subject to exceptions in the Act and regulations; it forecloses buying power from a third-party IPP, but a facility generating for its own use behind its own fence is not being "supplied" by anyone.
- Interconnection
- Manitoba banned new crypto mining connections in 2022. Bill 28, The Manitoba Hydro Amendment Act (first reading 2025-03-06), ends first-come-first-served for large grid connections and lets the Finance Minister direct Manitoba Hydro on whether a 'large supply of power' request should be prioritized. In practice this has already been used: the government rejected a proposed large-scale data centre at Île-des-Chênes (Verified via the corresponding project row and a direct live fetch of the underlying Jet.AI press release).
- Tariff
- No dedicated data centre tariff exists; the binding constraint is political approval under Bill 28, not price. Newest confirmed source dates to November 2025; verify no further Bill 28 regulations have since been enacted.
- Years to grid power
- n/a, government approval is now a precondition and is being exercised to reject projects rather than queue them
- Years behind the fence
- n/a, no published BTF pathway
- Basis for those years
- Manitoba Hydro's own 2025 Integrated Resource Plan Road Map states new dependable supply is needed within five years and does not factor data centres into future resource plans; combined with Bill 28's feasibility-denial power and the Île-des-Chênes rejection, no basis exists for a connection-time figure.
Dated events
- Premier Wab Kinew announces Manitoba will not approve the Jet.AI / Consensus Core hyperscale AI data centre on 142 hectares near Île-des-Chênes southeast of Winnipeg, citing environmental threat and limited economic benefit.
- Bill 39, The Manitoba Hydro Amendment and Tax Administration and Miscellaneous Taxes Amendment Act, enacted as SM 2026, c.32, creates separate treatment for cryptocurrency operations, data centres and prescribed large power supply projects. Section 110.2(1) imposes a levy on such customers' total monthly electricity charges at a rate prescribed by regulation, or, if no rate is prescribed, at a rate equal to 100% of the monthly energy charge per kWh plus 100% of the monthly demand charge per kVA under the applicable General Service rate schedule.
- Bill 20, The Manitoba Hydro Amendment Act, enacted as SM 2026, c.17, authorizes Manitoba Hydro to establish a curtailable power program for cryptocurrency operations. Under section 49.3, the program may be established to maintain the reliability, safety or adequacy of Manitoba's electricity system or to manage peak demand or system constraints, and it lets the corporation temporarily reduce the supply of power to a customer or class of customers using the power for cryptocurrency operations, in accordance with the program's terms and conditions.
- Manitoba Hydro files its 2025 Integrated Resource Plan Report with the Public Utilities Board on February 2, 2026. CEO Allan Danroth states, "This filing represents the beginning of the final phase of IRP approval." The provincial government had requested the filing as part of the overall approval process.
- Reported from Manitoba Hydro's responses to Public Utilities Board questions: 13 data centre connection requests are under various stages of review, with at least one service contract signed; Manitoba Hydro treats further detail as commercially sensitive.
- M.R. 68/2025 comes into force on September 1, 2025. From this date, related projects are aggregated where Manitoba Hydro is satisfied they are in substance a single project and five or more megawatts are requested in relation to the projects after August 31, 2025, and the corporation must deny a request for service by a customer if the proposed use of the power is directly or indirectly related to mining a cryptocurrency.
- Manitoba Hydro's public 'Apply for large power supply' page reflects the new regime: applications for a supply of power greater than 5 megawatts go to LocateInManitoba@hydro.mb.ca, and once a complete application is submitted, Manitoba Hydro evaluates the request to determine if it is eligible, reasonably feasible, and subject to a priority designation, in accordance with The Manitoba Hydro Act and the Requests for Service Regulation.
- Requests for Service Regulation, M.R. 68/2025, registered under The Manitoba Hydro Act.
Tracked projects
| Project | Status | Announced | Energized | Target online |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Convergence Compute Midwestern Canadian Data-Center Campus (Île-des-Chênes) | Not approved | 100 MW | Not stated | Not stated |
| Equinix WI1 Winnipeg (formerly Bell MTS Data Centre) | Operating | 8 MW | 8 MW | Not stated |
| Bell AI Fabric Rosser (CentrePort) | Construction | 6 MW | Not stated | 2027 |
Announced capacity is what the proponent has stated. Energized capacity is what is drawing. They are different figures and are never summed. How the figures reconcile.
Sources
- Apply for large power supply — Manitoba Hydro
- Set up your business in Manitoba — Manitoba Hydro (large load connection process and study timelines)
- Requests for Service Regulation, M.R. 68/2025
- Consolidated Regulations under The Manitoba Hydro Act
- Bill 28, The Manitoba Hydro Amendment Act (43rd Leg., 2nd Sess.), enacted SM 2025 c.25
- Manitoba bill status index, 43rd Legislature 2nd Session (Bill 28 = SM 2025, c.25)
- Bill 39, The Manitoba Hydro Amendment and Tax Administration and Miscellaneous Taxes Amendment Act (levy on data centres, crypto and large power supply projects)
- Bill 20, The Manitoba Hydro Amendment Act (curtailable power program for cryptocurrency operations)
- Manitoba bill status index, 43rd Legislature 3rd Session (Bill 20 = SM 2026 c.17; Bill 39 = SM 2026 c.32)
- The Manitoba Hydro Act, C.C.S.M. c. H190 (s.22 exclusive authority; s.49.2 denial of requests)
- The Manitoba Hydro Act, C.C.S.M. c. H190, official consolidation (accessed 16 Aug. 2026; “Current from 1 Apr. 2026 to 13 Aug. 2026”; s.49.2 present, source note S.M. 2025, c. 25, s. 4; no S.M. 2026 amendment note appears on the section or elsewhere in the consolidation)
Known gaps. 1. End-to-end timeline is not published. Manitoba Hydro publishes study durations (3-5 months, then 6-8 months) but no application-to-energization figure for a 100+ MW load, and construction duration is stated only as varying. The ministerial priority designation has no statutory deadline ("as soon as practicable"). Found no credible public report of an actual elapsed time for any Manitoba large load. 2. No pipeline volume is public. Statute re-verification, 2026-08-16. The Manitoba Hydro Act was amended twice in 2026 (S.M. 2026, c. 17 and c. 32, Part 1), which raised the question of whether the binding-constraint text on this card, which rests on s.49.2 and M.R. 68/2025, still holds. The official consolidation was read in full on 2026-08-16. It states it is current from 1 April 2026 to 13 August 2026 and is the most current version available. Section 49.2 is present and unchanged in substance: the corporation must deny a request for service prescribed as ineligible, must deny a request for a large supply of power where supply is not reasonably feasible or prescribed requirements are unmet, its determination is final, and the minister may direct priority service in the public interest. Its source note reads S.M. 2025, c. 25, s. 4, and no S.M. 2026 amendment note appears on the section or anywhere in the consolidation. Neither 2026 amendment touches the large-load or requests-for-service regime. No dated event is added and the constraint text is left as written; only the verification date moves. The CanLII consolidation was blocked by a CAPTCHA and was not used.
Record updated 2026-08-16. Sources reviewed 2026-08-16. Corrections: sam@mccordinvestments.com