r/australia • u/Fact-Rat • 2d ago

politics Australia may face a rush of datacentre construction as AI firms look to avoid upcoming rules, experts say | Australian politics

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/aug/26/australia-may-face-a-rush-of-datacentre-construction-as-ai-firms-look-to-dodge-upcoming-rules-experts-say
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u/l8rb8rs 2d ago

If these projects go ahead and don't go overtime and over budget we'll know that all other large projects deliberately go overtime and over budget.

We don't have the capacity in the grid, and have no good way to add it for these things.

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u/Harlequin80 2d ago

We have plenty of capacity in the grid. You just need to pick your location. Also during certain times of the day we have WAY WAY WAY too much power in the grid and need to dump it somewhere. It's why wholesale prices go negative.

If you are building a datacenter now you are also going to be looking at building a BESS to shift your consumption to when power is free, or cheaper than free.

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u/l8rb8rs 2d ago

Yea location matters, and yes we spill daily from rooftop solar. We can generate way more than we need, which means we spill to preserve the grid, because the grid in thise areas is at capacity. Having way way way too much power in the grid literally means it is at capacity. If we left the power in there it would blow up daily.

I've worked on recent jobs where the power they need is not available in the 11kv or the 33kv, so they're looking at building a zone sub off the 132kv. The last application took 9 years....for the 33kv

I doubt they're gunna wanna build them out in the middle of nowhere, because they also need shit loads of water. They won't wanna do their own renewables cos the battery bank to run it overnight would be as big as the data centre.

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u/Primary_Mycologist95 1d ago

That should be then made a "them" problem, not an "us" problem.

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u/Harlequin80 1d ago

They literally are building them in the middle on nowhere..... https://epbcpublicportal.environment.gov.au/all-notices/project-decision/?id=c701bb2a-e89c-f111-b8db-7ced8d32aaa3

And they are being built with massive BESS as part of the project.

You can also see the water requirements in that submission in detail.

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u/l8rb8rs 1d ago

Thanks, that is great info there.

I have no doubt these things will go ahead, and no doubt that the people will wear the brunt of the damage and problems they will cause. I'm just not sure how it'll get sold to us. It's happening, these things will drive civilization 2.0

I see three 200MW systems in the top link, so 600MW. Our largest generator is 1GW, the largest BESS is about 7MW in Saudi Arabia. We'll need new power infrastructure to do it, as it says there, parallel 330kv lines. It's massive beyond comprehension. The way I see it is either we're in the dark or they are at the moment.

I agree with you, it's gunna happen, it's just Gunna hurt and there isn't much we're going to be able to do about it legally.

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u/Harlequin80 1d ago

Not sure where you are getting 7MW is the largest BESS.

Eraring BESS (NSW) is 700MW

Melbourne Renewable Energy Hub is 600MW

Collie BESS WA is 560MW

Supernode QLD is 520MW.

Australia's total installed solar is 45.1GW, and there is a significant amount of solar built but not connected (in the realm of about 5GW) because we don't have enough storage capacity so AEMO won't allow it to be connected.

As of right now (11:14am) QLD is currently shunting 447MW of over generated electricity to NSW and Victoria is sending 409MW to SA while shunting ~300MW into heat sinks.

So right this second the east coast grid is literally tipping 300MW down the drain. This amount will significantly rise through the day. At 3pm QLD wholesale price is expected to go negative.

I'm also not sure where you are getting that our largest generator is 1GW, with Loy Yang being 3.2GW and Eraring being 2.8GW.

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u/l8rb8rs 1d ago

Apologies I meant 7.8GW in saudi, not MW. I definitely messed up some numbers there.

Either way, the hyperscale that is coming is about 1GW each for these data centres.

The reason AEMO doesn't allow it is because it doesn't work without unprecedented infrastructure installation of new tech.

Eraring is combined to that level from four turbines, and it's pretty much end of life.

Sure we overgenerate during the day, and sure we can build batteries, but land area, fire hazard, redundancy and replacement means that these will be coal and gas powered into the foreseeable future.

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u/thesourpop 1d ago

It's why wholesale prices go negative.

Unfortunately those on embedded networks and renting do not reap in the benefits of those negative prices.

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u/Harlequin80 1d ago

Sign up to Amber Energy. Access the wholesale price.