• ABC found 25 approved but unbuilt projects with at least 2.9GW of stated or permitted capacity
  • Proposed federal power and water rules are not expected to apply retrospectively

The fact

An ABC investigation published on 11 September found 25 Australian data-centre projects that have planning approval but have not yet been built. Because the proposed federal power and water rules are not expected to apply retrospectively, these projects may fall outside the new national requirements.

ABC put their combined stated or permitted capacity at at least 2.9GW. The projects do not all use the same measure, however: some figures refer to computing capacity, while others refer to approved energy capacity. The total therefore gives a sense of the size of the approved pipeline, rather than a forecast of how much electricity the projects will eventually use. ABC checked the list with RenewMap and CBRE and noted that some developments may never be built.

The federal proposal would require large new data centres to support additional electricity supply, pay their share of connection costs, reduce demand when the grid needs support and use water efficiently. Legislation is expected in early 2027. Projects approved before then would not necessarily be free of similar obligations, however, because state planning conditions and project-specific commitments can already cover the same issues. ABC pointed to Goodman's Project Apollo in Sydney, where the approval includes NSW requirements on energy and water.

The assessment

If the federal rules do not apply to projects that already have approval, those sites will not all start from the same set of requirements. Some may already have detailed state conditions on power and water. Others may have different commitments depending on where and when they were approved.

That does not automatically make an older approval weaker. A project outside the future federal rules could already have similar obligations through its planning approval or other agreements. The opposite is also true: being approved does not tell customers how much new power a project has secured, how much water it may use or what conditions apply when construction begins.

For BTW readers, the approval date will not tell the whole story. Buyers, utilities, and investors will need to look at the actual conditions attached to each project, including its power arrangements, water requirements and build phases. That matters especially for the 25 projects identified by ABC, because their combined capacity is large but their individual obligations may be quite different.

What to watch

The draft legislation should make clear which existing approvals are excluded from the new rules. Planning documents for individual projects will then matter just as much, showing what power and water conditions already apply and whether older approvals carry obligations similar to those proposed nationally.