An independent BC + AI public-interest initiative
Public working draftv0.2.0 · UpdatedWhat we power. Who benefits. What stays here.
British Columbia is deciding which new data-centre proposals may advance toward scarce clean electricity. BC + AI is building an independent public-interest framework and pilot registry to show who owns these projects, what they consume, who carries the cost, who has authority, and what durable value remains in B.C.
Public compute reads major compute infrastructure through the public interest. Public access is one possible benefit. It is not the whole definition.
This is an independent BC + AI project. It is not an official government registry, a regulator, a utility, a Nation government, or a decision authority.
Public evidence atlas
Why this matters
AI now arrives as substations, cooling, water, fibre, backup generation, specialized chips, and a great deal of electricity. Building it uses public infrastructure and raises basic questions about what gets built, who pays, and what the rest of us receive in return.
B.C. has started using a competitive process for specified new AI and conventional data-centre capacity. That is real policy machinery. The wider public record remains scattered across utility documents, land records, council agendas, permits, and company announcements.
Swipe horizontally to inspect the full diagram →
| Stage | Term | What it measures | Who decides | Where it is recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01: Requested | PC-TRM-001 | Capacity a proponent asks the utility or call process to consider. Eligible 2026 Call for Demand requests are bounded from 10 to 145 MW. | Proponent | Application request |
| 02: Allocated | PC-TRM-002 | Capacity a competitive process or regulation makes available to a selected project or sector window. Selection does not energize a site. | BC Hydro under B.C. Reg. 8/2026 | Call selection outcome |
| 03: Contracted | PC-TRM-003 | Capacity written into a binding supply, interconnection or facilities agreement. | BC Hydro and the proponent | Binding agreement |
| 04: Connected | PC-TRM-004 | Capacity actually interconnected and able to draw service, or the in-service peak recognized by the utility. | BC Hydro interconnection | Utility in-service records |
| 05: Actual | PC-Q-002 | What the facility measurably draws in operation, recorded as peak demand and annual energy rather than a fifth MW term. | Physical operation | Metered operating data |
When a project asks for a share of B.C.'s clean power, the public should be able to see what it powers, who controls it, who carries the cost, and what stays here after the ribbon-cutting.
Five public tests
Short enough to remember at a council meeting. Hard enough to show where a proposal is specific, vague, or asking the public to take too much on faith.
Show the owner, operator, parent and controlling entities, including material changes over time.
Makes visible
Facility identity · Ownership and control · Material changes
Keep requested, allocated, contracted, connected, and actual electricity separate. Report water, cooling, heat, backup generation, and environmental impacts with clear boundaries.
Makes visible
Electricity · Water and cooling · Environment
Identify responsibility for project-specific grid upgrades, municipal services, emergency response, monitoring, and decommissioning.
Makes visible
Grid upgrades · Infrastructure contributions · Financial security
Track lasting work, wages, procurement, research, company formation, public and small-business compute access, skills, infrastructure, and delivered outcomes.
Makes visible
Jobs and procurement · Compute access · Commitments and performance
Distinguish the authority of First Nations governments and rights holders, local governments, the Province, BC Hydro, regulators, federal bodies, communities, proponents, and qualified professionals.
Makes visible
Authority context · Authorized Nation-controlled disclosure · Approvals
Jobs and procurement promises cannot cancel out unresolved rights, unavailable utility capacity, an unsafe design, or an unproven water source.
The B.C. position
Saying B.C. has done nothing would be false. Saying the current process is a complete lifecycle accountability framework would be convenient. The gap between those two sentences is the work.
B.C. already has
B.C. still needs
The first column describes current law, policy and process at a high level. The second column contains BC + AI recommendations, not legal requirements.
What you can use
The position paper and pilot registry are available now. The Decision Toolkit is not yet public.
Position paper
The full argument for treating major compute infrastructure as a public bargain around resources, authority, accountability, and durable capability.
Read the position paperPilot registry
An independent pilot that brings ownership, resources, commitments, sources, and missing information into one readable record. It separates fictional examples from records assembled from public sources. It is not an official registry, approval, or ranking.
Browse the pilot registryNot yet public
A structured set of questions for reviewing evidence, authority, conditions, monitoring, and decommissioning. It will remain out of public use until qualified review and Nation-led governance work are complete.
How we work
Authorized governance decisions determine what may publish. One projection layer enforces them. Every material claim points to a source. Requested, allocated, contracted, connected, and actual electricity remain separate. Unknown, not disclosed, and disputed never become zero. Promises remain separate from results.
Swipe horizontally to inspect the full diagram →
Swipe horizontally to inspect the full diagram →
The stored record holds values from all four disclosure classes. Every value is evaluated at one server-side projection boundary, and no output exists until the value has passed it.
| Stored value | Class | At the boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Requested capacity | PC-DSC-001 Public | Passes |
| Regional roll-up count | PC-DSC-002 Aggregated | Passes, rolled up |
| Site security detail | PC-DSC-003 Protected | Withheld before the boundary |
| Territory-specific record | PC-DSC-004 Nation-controlled | Withheld before the boundary |
Facility-level information needed for public accountability, with source and effective-date context.
Still carry source IDs and source status.
Information useful at a regional or system level but unsafe or misleading at excessive granularity.
Small-N geographic roll-ups can identify a single proposal. When they can, drop to not-disclosed. Aggregation or generalization cannot convert Nation-controlled information into ordinary public data or bypass authorization.
Information withheld or generalized for legitimate privacy, security, privilege, critical-infrastructure or narrow commercial reasons.
Ordinary statutory and commercial confidentiality only. If the material is Nation-controlled, use PC-DSC-004 instead, even if a contract also marks it confidential.
BC + AI's working handling commitment pending the scoped work in #1995, not a universal legal determination: collection, interpretation, use, retention and publication stay with the relevant Nation or authorized body.
Default: do not collect, commit, or publish. Nation-controlled is BC + AI's working handling commitment pending the scoped work in #1995, not a universal legal determination. The relevant Nation or authorized body determines authorization within its authority; issue #1995 and PC-REV-001 track BC + AI's review and documentation of that authorization and do not themselves own or create it. Agents do not invent disclosure rules to 'be helpful.'
Bring a missing piece
Found a wrong source, missing value, or disagreement between public records? Point us to evidence we can check.
Take part
We are looking for source corrections, municipal and utility expertise, water and cooling review, privacy and security review, accessibility review and properly scoped, compensated First Nations governance and data-governance participation.
Do not send confidential, personal, security-sensitive or Nation-controlled information through the general contact route.
BC + AI has been writing about electricity, water, sovereign compute, and public value since before the registry existed. Start with the position paper, then follow the related reporting and commentary.