Monash City Council has knocked back plans for a $137 million and 38-megawatt data centre in Clayton over concerns about its energy demands and impact on nearby residents.
The site: Located at 1816-1832 Dandenong Road, the site currently houses 10 buildings of up to three storeys, including Telstra’s two data centres – which pull about 12.7 megawatts from the grid.
The application: Centuria Industrial applied to demolish two existing buildings and develop a four-storey data centre building – with a capacity of 38 megawatts – at a total cost of $137 million. Running at full capacity, the building would use about as much electricity in a year as 70,000 Victorian homes.
Monash Council staff had recommended councillors approve the permit application with a number of conditions during the council meeting on Tuesday September 29.
However, this motion did not pass, with the majority of councillors voting to knock back the application, citing concerns about noise, heat, power supply, distance from homes and looming state rules that could deem the project non-compliant.
New rules incoming: In September, the Victorian government released its Sustainable Data Centre Action Plan, which would require data centres to be developed more than 150 metres from homes. However, legislation is still a few months away from being enforceable.
The federal Senate has also launched an inquiry into data centres, with a report due by November 16.
What they said: Monash mayor Stuart James said it was “disappointing” to see how far behind the state government is on regulating data centres, leaving councils to make decisions on planning rules alone.
Monash councillor Rebecca Paterson said the Senate inquiry and the creation of nationwide standards should be concluded before we see a proliferation of data centres in local communities.
🗣️ “The community needs to have confidence that this kind of work happens before the foundations are being laid,” she told the Eastern Melburnian.
What’s next? The developer can now appeal the refusal in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Councillor James told the meeting that the refusal may not hold, because the site is zoned for data centre use.
🗣️ “There’s no change to the use of land,” he said. “I don’t know how successful this will be moving forward.”