By Brett McKay, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Investigative Journalism Foundation
The company behind a massive data centre project previously rejected by Alberta’s utilities regulator has hired lobbyists with ties to the United Conservative Party government to help get its proposal greenlit.
Synapse Real Estate Corp. is proposing a one-gigawatt data centre project in Olds, Alta., which includes the construction of a 1.4-gigawatt natural gas-fired power plant and 600 diesel generators to provide 1.8 gigawatts of backup power. Once operational, the data centre would draw as much power as the city of Edmonton.
In March, the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) rejected Synapse’s initial application for the data centre, citing insufficient information related to environmental impacts, inadequate responses to concerns raised by residents and a failure to account for the potential noise impacts on residents.
The company resubmitted an application to AUC in April, but the energy regulator paused the application process “until Synapse submits its responses to the commission’s additional information requests,” according to a June 16 notice from Synapse.
Synapse registered to lobby multiple government departments on July 17, according to the province’s lobbyist registry, including the premier’s office, energy and minerals, environment and protected areas, affordability and utilities, technology and innovation, Alberta Electric System Operator and AUC.
Synapse has hired Crestview Strategy to manage its lobbying campaign. Consultant lobbyists handling the file include Andrew Sennyah and Evan Menzies. Sennyah was previously a ministerial assistant to Alberta’s environment minister and an outreach coordinator for the United Conservative Party. Menzies, now a vice president of Crestview, served as the director of communications for the United Conservative Party and Alberta’s Wildrose Caucus.
In its lobbying filing, Synapse wrote that AUC has the authority to approve construction of a power plant and that the company is engaging Alberta’s government to “encourage a fair and timely application of the existing law for this current project and potential future projects.”
Alberta passed legislation in 2025 that allows data centre proponents to “bring their own energy” to meet their power needs and connect to the electricity grid. Under the Bring Your Own Generation (BYOG) framework, only gas-fired power plants will be considered for standalone generation. The BYOG rules are anticipated to be finalized and rolled out in August.
Synapse is also lobbying the government for a quick implementation of BYOG regulations “in a manner that enables fully off-grid data centre development” for the Olds data centre and future proposed projects.
Synapse and the Government of Alberta did not respond to a request for comment before publication.
