Keel Infrastructure postponed an October 28 public meeting on its proposed 96-megawatt AI data center in Sherbrooke, Québec, as city officials consider stronger rules for new computing campuses. The project would reuse electricity allocations from three existing Bitcoin mines, but it has not received final municipal or provincial approval.

Keel attributed the postponement to a problem with the planned venue and said it was seeking a new November date. Separately, Sherbrooke Mayor Marie-Claude Bibeau said October 26 she would propose an interim control measure so council could review standards for data-center developments. The measure was a proposal, not an enacted ban.

Existing Bitcoin mining power, not new generation

Keel’s July agreement announcement described plans to consolidate power supplied by Hydro-Sherbrooke to three mining locations into one high-performance-computing campus near Boulevard Industriel. Québec’s energy ministry must still approve the capacity transfer.

The existing allocations are 48 MW at The Bunker, 30 MW at Leger and 18 MW at Garlock, totaling 96 MW. Keel says it is not seeking additional megawatts. Those figures describe authorized electrical demand, not 96 MW of newly constructed hydroelectric generation.

Québec’s electricity supply is predominantly hydroelectric, and Keel has historically described its regional mining sites as using low-cost hydropower. Nevertheless, the company’s contract is with the local electric utility; this announcement does not establish a direct, exclusive supply from any individual dam.

Keel’s project website illustrates a possible campus and describes a closed-loop cooling design using distilled water and glycol. The images are conceptual, and technical, environmental and noise studies remain part of the review.

Permits and community review remain

The municipality has emphasized that approving conditional agreements does not mean a data center has been approved for construction. The proposed land acquisition, conditional-use authorization, environmental approvals and provincial electricity review still stand between the company and an operational campus.

Keel currently targets a gradual transfer of computing operations starting in late 2028, subject to approvals. It says the combined existing and new sites would not exceed 96 MW during that transition; that is a company projection, not an operating result.

The company’s October outreach delay also follows local opposition and questions about electricity use, sound, generators, water and community benefits. City-run public participation would be separate from Keel’s developer-organized meetings.

The Sherbrooke project illustrates the changing economics of hydropower-linked Bitcoin mining sites: their existing power rights and grid connections may be repurposed for AI, but reused allocations do not bypass permitting or resolve the impacts of a different type of computing load. BitcoinVersus.Tech has also covered Keel’s Pennsylvania mining-to-AI transition.

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