Updated Official List Details Violations Across Several Locations

The national data centre standards are expected to be legislated early next year. Many might not have noticed they are there, but facilities on industrial estates across Canberra — and in at least one instance in the suburbs at Bruce — are housing vast amounts of data and increasingly AI. The ACT government estimates there are already 15 data centres in Canberra, and says there are proposals for a new one in Beard, as well as a possible extension to another in Hume.

CDC Data Centres operates eight data centres across four campuses in the ACT, employing about 250 people. The company's chief executive, Greg Boorer, set up their first data centre in Canberra in 2007. Boorer says the city's cool climate, close proximity to the federal government — a major client — and 100 per cent renewables-sourced electricity make it an ideal location. "Canberra is great because it's actually quite cool and cold in winter," he said.

"But even during summer, it actually gets very pleasant in the evenings because of the altitude. So in a year-round sense, it's actually the coldest place in Australia that has all of the ingredients: so the energy, the power, the data connectivity and also the educated workforce that can actually make this industry very successful. With servers in a data centre generating a lot of heat, temperatures and stable power supply are key factors for operators.

CDC's data centre in Beard, which is still being fitted out, will have a total capacity of 40 megawatts (MW). Compared to the entire ACT's highest recorded peak electricity demand last year of 732 MW — it is a lot of power. Data centres also traditionally use tens of thousands of litres of water per year for cooling, which places increased pressure on local supplies.

Those demands on resources have — in part — prompted protests against data centres in parts of Australia and around the world. But opposition to data centres in the ACT has been less vocal, which operators attribute to the use of "closed-loop" cooling systems that do not draw on the local water supply, as well as investment in renewable energy." Boorer said many developments in the United States had not necessarily been in the right location, or operators had taken an "almost selfish approach". "They're not thinking about how that generation could be leveraged across the grids for the benefit of the community more generally," he said.

"And so there hasn't been a lot of necessary benefit sharing from those types of developments." Boorer said the ACT had "a really consistent" set of planning laws and standards that the industry operated within. "We have a national energy market, which is much more, I guess, sophisticated and mature and it's more sensibly arranged," he said. "We match 100 per cent of our energy consumption with renewable energy today.

Last month the federal government announced future large-scale AI data centres could face mandatory requirements including minimising water use, underwriting new electricity generation and paying the full cost of connecting to the grid. Barr says policy and practice around data centres in the ACT already aligns with the prime minister's intent for a new set of national standards and oversight for artificial intelligence. Planning laws allow data centres in areas of the ACT zoned for industrial and services as well as broadacre sites outside urban areas — subject to planning rules and approvals processes.

Boorer says investment in renewable energy generation and "closed-loop cooling systems have helped allay local community concerns about data centres. The demands on energy and water supplies caused by data centres have prompted protests in communities around the world.