Calls for data centre moratorium 'until we get the rules right'

P : Data Centres The NEXTDC data centre in Bruce is one of more than a dozen facilities in the ACT.  (ABC News: Matt Roberts) Front of mind is a second CDC Data Centre in Beard, a suburb near Canberra Airport, which was conditionally approved in September. The proposed $200 million centre is a three-storey building comprising of 12 data halls, and would be located next to another CDC data centre in the suburb. CDC's first centre in Beard is expected to have a total capacity of 40 megawatts (MW). (ABC News: Harry Frost) The application for the project was submitted a week before the ACT government promised to develop a data centre framework to "provide clear rules about where data centres can be located, the standards they must meet, and how proposals will be assessed". But Mr Copland said there needed to be a halt on the development of data centres in Canberra until tougher regulations were in place. "We're seeing a potential massive expansion of this infrastructure and we're worried about the impact this is going to have on our energy system, on our water, on our biodiversity and on our community more broadly," he said. Power, water consumption concerns  Mr Copland said the first stage of the Beard development was expected to use 5 per cent of the ACT's peak energy, with the proposed second centre using "double that".  "A project like that is going to put a huge amount of strain on the [electricity] grid," he said. But Chief Minister Andrew Barr dismissed the idea in August, saying "the ACT already has rigorous planning, environmental, utility and regulatory requirements".  Federally, the government is also working on a new set of national standards and oversight for artificial intelligence, including forcing large-scale AI data centres to minimise water use and fund their own power supply. He said Australia's planning rules had already helped the sector avoid becoming like the United States. "I think it was always going to happen in the United States because they really prioritised speed and in some ways greed over doing the right thing, choosing the right locations, being a good community participant with regards to adding energy to the actual grid," he said.