North Shore data centres that don’t follow rules about energy use could have their power cut under a new proposal put forward by federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen.
What happened: Much has been said about what rules will be enforced on data centre companies; less on how those rules will be enforced.
This week, we got our first look at what rule-breaking data centres can expect from the national energy regulators.
The rules: On October 20, Energy Minister Chris Bowen wrote to the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) — which sets the rules for the national energy market — to amend the National Electricity Rules.
Bowen’s request regards the energy demands of data centres, and how Australia will enforce the rules it sets around these demands.
This change would work in conjunction with several other data centre reforms, such as those regarding renewable electricity obligations and connection agreements.
What is it: Under the proposed rules put forward, whatever energy data centres use will need to be replaced with new, renewable energy projects.
Data centres use a large amount of power. Under these rules, if a data centre wants to set up in Australia it needs to build green energy infrastructure — wind or solar farms — that will supply that power.
Typically, a company breaking Australian energy rules results in that company paying a fine.
The new policy suggests this “may not be an adequate disincentive” and instead proposes a “load-shedding penalty”.
This means that if a data centre is using more energy than it is supplying, it would be forced to reduce this until it is in line with how much it can supply.
Local voice: Sasha Titchkosky, a Lane Cove local who has been pushing against data centres in the area, told the Lorikeet these announcements have made little immediate impact for residents.
“From a Federal Government perspective, they seem to acknowledge we need regulations”, she said, “but they're still allowing data centres to be approved without these regulations”.
“While there's expectations and guidelines, there's still no binding rules”.
In the request, Bowen claims the purpose of the change is to ensure if a data centre fails to follow Australian energy standards, the impact of that falls on the data centre company, not regular consumers.
The Lorikeet sought comment from NextDC, Goodman Group, IFM Investors and Airtrunk, all of whom operate data centres or are building data centres in the North Shore region.
Both Goodman Group and NextDC told us they were “unable to provide comment”.
Thumbnail: Goodman Group