00:02You may not have noticed them, but these facilities quietly humming away on industrial
00:07estates and in one instance in the suburbs in Bruce are housing vast amounts of data
00:12and increasingly AI.
00:15In a year-round sense, it's actually the coldest place in Australia that has all of
00:19the ingredients, so the energy, so the power, also the data connectivity and also the educated
00:26workforce that can actually make this industry very successful.
00:30The ACT Government estimates there are already 15 data centres in Canberra and more on the
00:36way.
00:36Eight are operated by CDC data centres.
00:40The company's facility in Beard alone could eventually draw 40 megawatts of power at total
00:46capacity.
00:46Compared to the entire Territory's highest recorded peak demand of around 730 megawatts
00:52last year, that's a lot of power.
00:54They want us to feel like it's inevitable and they do this with everything.
00:58That kind of pressure on resources from data centres, including water for cooling, has
01:03in part prompted protests against new projects elsewhere.
01:07Water goes around and around through that infrastructure you've seen on the roof and that's all it does.
01:12Local operators say a comparative lack of vocal opposition in the ACT is down to the use of
01:18closed loop cooling systems that don't draw on local water supplies and offsetting investment
01:23in renewable energy.
01:25Most people wouldn't even realise our facilities are here because we don't have a lot of the
01:31characteristics of the facilities that have been not wanted by the communities in other
01:37parts of the world.
01:38The ACT Government says those characteristics will also mean Canberra based data centres will
01:44easily meet or exceed the Federal Government's proposal to set new national standards, including
01:50requirements for operators to minimise water usage and underwrite their own power supply.
01:55Really the national scheme, if you like, would be catching up with where the ACT is at, not
02:01creating a new set of benchmarks that would exceed what we already do in the Territory.
02:06The Chief Minister doesn't support calls to halt new data centre approvals until the national
02:11standards are legislated, but with an increasing appetite for energy also driven by population
02:17growth and the electrification of transport and appliances, it's expected any further expansion
02:22of the data centre industry will be dependent on the strength of the local grid.
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