Only 23% of Sydney and Melbourne data centre projects confirm power, Bloomberg finds

Fewer than one in four large data centre projects planned or being built around Sydney and Melbourne has publicly confirmed a secured power supply or grid connection, according to a Bloomberg review of company disclosures published on 23 October 2026. The 40-plus projects carry more than A$100 billion (US$70 billion) of projected investment, and Bloomberg read the missing confirmations as a sign of setbacks and possible delays.

Seven of 28 active Sydney projects have confirmed power, against three of 15 in Melbourne. Bloomberg approached 25 developers to check their public disclosures. GreenSquare declined to comment on its power arrangements but said it was working with authorities and infrastructure partners. CDC Data Centres said it had delivery plans for every site under construction, with power timelines as expected. Nine others declined to comment or did not directly answer, and the remainder did not respond. Tech Insider cautioned that the review measures public confirmation rather than physical reality, because commercial power agreements often stay private until a project is financed.

The constraint is sharpest in Sydney, where Transgrid said in August that the city cannot connect any of the 20 gigawatts of inquiries it has received from large new power users. Transgrid said half of that demand sits within 12 kilometres of its Sydney West substation, a load it compared with the winter peak of the whole of New South Wales.

Friction is already costing money. Bloomberg reported that NextDC cut its profit forecast in the week of the article after Melbourne residents blocked the installation of towering transmission lines, and that its share value almost halved. In Sydney, Goodman Group dropped its A$1.2 billion Project Mars last month; the 90-megawatt facility would have stood about 20 metres from the nearest home and 160 metres from a public school, and drew hundreds of objections. Residents living near NextDC's West Footscray facility, some about 15 metres away, told a parliamentary inquiry last month they wanted compensation for noise, pollution and potential fire risks.

Official data is also starting to show the gap between announcements and delivery. The Australian Energy Market Operator found that over a third of proposed data centres seeking main-grid access were cancelled last year. BloombergNEF counts more than 20 gigawatts in announced and early-stage projects against an operating fleet of 1.5 gigawatts. BNEF analyst Tushna Mehta said, "Data center capacity is being built much faster than the new generation needed to supply it." Morgans Financial analyst Nick Harris wrote that "Social license for Australian data centers is becoming an increasingly significant headwind", adding that investors fear further delays.

Australia has more than 160 operating data centres, mostly in Sydney and Melbourne, which use about 2 per cent of the electricity supplied by the country's grids. AEMO has projected that share could grow by a quarter each year, to roughly 6 per cent by 2030 and 13 per cent by 2036. Industry-commissioned analysis puts annual water use at about 5.5 gigalitres, roughly 0.04 per cent of national consumption, though local effects could be much larger where projects cluster in drought-stressed growth corridors. University of Technology Sydney researcher Bronwyn Cumbo said public resistance to AI is rising and that many facilities are planned near homes, schools, farmland and natural areas.

Bloomberg said these hurdles raise questions about the government's push to make Australia a regional hub while courting investors and seeking to streamline approvals. Building further from the major cities could help, but would need heavy investment in new transmission lines and telecommunications.