Power play: national law could curb data centre demands
Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson |
Data centres should be forced to supply additional renewable energy to operate in Australia with a national law needed to ensure they comply in all states and territories, according to advice given to ministers.
But not all data centres should face the same requirements, with smaller facilities given leeway to meet a lower standard, according to the proposal.
The Australian Energy Market Commission released its advice for the artificial intelligence hubs on Wednesday, more than a week after energy and climate ministers met to discuss changes to data centre approvals.
But ministers from Queensland and the Northern Territory disagreed with changes proposed at the meeting, setting up a battle over incoming rules.
About 162 data centres operate in Australia, with more than 90 more proposed to meet growing demand for AI tools and cloud storage.
In its policy advice, the Australian Energy Market Commission recommended four reforms to ensure the developments did not drive up electricity prices.
Under its proposed changes, data centre developers would need to invest in additional renewable energy resources and prove they would be adequate for their electricity demand.
Each developer would also need to register with the Australian Energy Market Operator and agree to monitoring, and would be encouraged to build near its renewable energy source.
The changes would help ensure energy-hungry projects did not raise electricity costs for other users, Australian Energy Market Commission chair Anna Collyer said.
”Data centre growth does not have to come at a cost to other consumers but that depends on getting the settings right from the start,” she said.
”Our starting point is simple: this growth must not leave other consumers worse off.”
The energy reforms could be introduced in stages and applied differently to data centres using less than 30 megawatts to ensure fairness, the advice said.
The recommendations were based on examples overseas and the commission would conduct public consultation before they were finalised, Ms Collyer said.
”The lesson from other jurisdictions isn’t that data centres are the problem, it’s that very large loads need to be planned, connected and operated as part of an integrated system,” she said.
Additional renewable energy requirements would be best introduced as a national law to ensure it applied to all parts of Australia, the advice said.
Still, energy ministers in Queensland and the Northern Territory objected to the changes in the meeting on July 28, with Queensland Treasurer David Janetzki telling Australian Clean Energy Summit attendees that his state wanted to leave its options open.
”If a gas solution to power a data centre can be found, it should be explored,” he said.
”We want Queensland to have a good shot at it, as every jurisdiction does, and we think we’re not going to pick one generation form over another.”
Energy ministers are expected to meet to discuss the issue in September.
AAP