coNEXA to spend $250m on recycled water supply for NextDC's S4 Sydney

coNEXA, a water infrastructure company, will put $250 million into extending AquaNet in Western Sydney, connecting its Fairfield recycled water plant with NextDC's S4 Sydney facility at Horsley Park. The pipeline is meant to deliver up to 16 million litres of recycled water daily. Construction is slated for November and the first water is expected in late 2027. coNEXA said the project has IPART approval and that the money will come entirely from private sources.

coNEXA said it believes the arrangement is the largest recycled water supply to a data centre in Australia. By its account, up to 5.8 billion litres a year that would otherwise be released to the ocean would be reused, and wastewater from up to 35,000 homes' worth of output would be kept out of a sewerage network under strain.

NextDC says the S4 Sydney campus is designed for up to 365MW of IT capacity and is aiming for Tier IV certification. The operator said using recycled water would suit cooling designs with lower power needs. It put the design power usage effectiveness at 1.125 at full IT load, which it says is more than 25 per cent below the 2026 global average reported by the Uptime Institute. NextDC chief engineering and design officer Jeff Van Zetten said that cooling S4 Sydney with AquaNet water "puts that responsibility into operation".

NSW Minister for Water Rose Jackson said the deal was "exactly the type of project we envisioned when we released the NSW Data Centre Guidelines". AquaNet was developed after the Millennium Drought and has supplied recycled water to businesses and industry in Western Sydney since 2011. coNEXA told the NSW Legislative Council's data centre inquiry that the network can provide up to 25 million litres a day for industrial uses.

In that submission coNEXA argued that water planning belongs inside data centre development strategies, not alongside them as a separate matter. It noted that State Significant Development approvals often mention recycled water for cooling, yet there is currently "little to no" enabling infrastructure to deliver it at scale. It asked the NSW Government to push regulated utilities to work with licensed private water providers and to begin a longer-term framework for that cooperation.

coNEXA CEO Kurt Dahl said NextDC's commitment "unlocks the scale and demand to build the first stage of a network that will serve more of Western Sydney industry and the community over time". coNEXA said other industrial users and local councils could also benefit, for example through irrigation of public open spaces during dry weather and water restrictions. It said the project would support up to 200 construction jobs plus ongoing roles.