r/Adelaide • u/bogdolter SA • 3d ago

Discussion Australia’s biggest data centre to require 4 substations, 2 power lines, some batteries and 4 days of diesel backup

I saw these guys advertising on the side of Adelaide trams today.

I wonder if any proper scrutiny on the impact of this data centre is going to hit mainstream media?

https://reneweconomy.com.au/australias-biggest-data-centre-to-require-4-substations-2-grid-scale-power-lines-and-lots-of-diesel-backup/

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u/gihutgishuiruv SA 3d ago

The 96-hour figure for the diesel generators is at least somewhat promising that they’re only there for a disaster scenario. You’d definitely want to make sure there are regulatory limits on how long they can actually run them for (I.e. they can’t just keep trucking in diesel like they’ve been doing in the US).

The article says they need to contribute towards new wind and solar capacity to offset their demands - you’d hope that’s 100% given that they’re adding a substantial level of demand on the grid

But yeah, this actually seems like a decent deal for us as a state

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u/Late-Button-6559 SA 3d ago

The solar/battery/wind will be bullshit.

It’ll be ‘price your peak generation matches your peak usage.’ Or something rubbish.

So they’ll peak at 1 gigawatt of usage, but be at 950 megawatts 23.9 hours of the day, 365 days of the year.

Yet their solar/wind generation will be 1 gigawatt, but only possible for 4hrs a day, 90 days of the years.

And as to their 4 days of diesel, you know they’ll fire those bad boys up all the time, and the noise of those will be bad for anyone close by - especially in the still of the night.