Next-generation data centres are coming, and the ACT Government needs to shape the development it wants, a new paper says. Photo: CDC.
The ACT should identify land and zone it for integrated energy and data centre precincts so it can ride the AI boom, according to complex project delivery consultancy TBH.
In a new paper, The Infrastructure Behind Canberra’s Digital Future, TBH says the ACT Government should be proactive in establishing ground rules for appropriate data centre development, including securing commitments from potential developers for renewable energy supply and environmental safeguards, including water efficiency.
It proposes an integrated utility precinct model – planning power, water, cooling, connectivity and enabling infrastructure together at precinct scale – as a practical way to overcome Canberra’s land and energy constraints, which include limited local generation, dependence on interconnected infrastructure and increasing grid congestion risk.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr said in March that more data centres were welcome in the ACT, but they would have to provide their own renewable energy sources, and that water and land would remain challenges.
The paper argues that a data centre should not be seen as an individual development but part of an infrastructure ecosystem with mutual benefits.
Data centres could help anchor investment in substations, renewable energy hubs, battery storage and grid firming infrastructure that benefited the whole network, including local use of excess power and heat.
TBH said the ACT was in a unique situation as the centre of national government with a huge digital footprint that will be looking to use artificial intelligence to manage its data and to improve its services.
Unlike Sydney and Melbourne, its data centre market was shaped by sovereign government requirements and national security considerations, so new AI-focused data centres would need to be located in secure sites with reliable power and water sources.
But the ACT Government had carriage of planning and was in a position to secure investment that fitted with its sustainability goals, including the commitment to 100 per cent renewable electricity use, in exchange for faster approvals, greater certainty and lower capital exposure.
TBH Director and Global Data Centre Lead Rob Hammond says the ACT can’t afford to miss the AI bus. Photo: TBH.
TBH Director and Global Data Centre Lead Rob Hammond said that a coordinated approach to data centre development, rather than piecemeal site-by-site treatment, would ensure beneficial outcomes for the ACT and developers.
Mr Hammond said appropriate land needed to be found away from homes and community infrastructure but with access to high-voltage lines.
The ACT should establish ground rules for the type of data centre developments that it wanted to have on its turf.
“If you’re looking at this as more of a portfolio level, there’s the opportunity for the data centre operators to provide their own renewable power systems and maybe they’ll jump to paying for a new solar farm, or water treatment plant, or desalination plant, or a closed loop system which doesn’t use water,” Mr Hammond said.
“There’s more opportunity to build the supporting infrastructure that can benefit the local communities as well.
“The Territory Government needs to be saying, if you can give us the project that ticks these boxes, we’re going to give you fast approvals because it’s the sort of projects that we want.”
Mr Hammond said Victoria had been really clear about its needs, and approval times were just three months compared with 18 months for NSW.
Mr Barr said the ACT’s 100 per cent renewable electricity status would survive the data centre age.
Mr Hammond said this did not necessarily mean that a data centre needed to build a solar farm on site. It could, for example, plug into or purchase power from a dedicated solar or wind generator anywhere.
Land scarcity was an issue, but Mr Hammond said the new data centres for the AI era would require two-thirds of the space used for traditional ones and, if needed, could be stacked into multi-storey structures like those being developed in places such as Singapore and Hong Kong.
Mr Hammond noted that newer data centres used less water than the older data centres, which generally used evaporative technologies for cooling involving enormous amounts of water.
Newer designs deployed closed-loop systems or refrigerant, recycled water or only used water when the temperature rose above a certain level.
In drier environments like Canberra, it probably required a closed-loop design.
“The only challenge with a more water-efficient solution is it uses more power, but if you are using a renewable generation source, then it doesn’t really matter because you’re getting your power for free from the sun,” Mr Hammond said.
He said that if the ACT Government was very clear about the rules, approvals time and infrastructure needs, a lot of money would flow towards developments in Canberra that would be good for the Territory and the nation.
He said the ACT could not afford to miss the bus on this pioneering infrastructure.
“In the 1800s we were building railways, in the 1900s interstate highways, this is the next generation,” Mr Hammond said.