The Victorian Greens say explosive new forecasts showing data centres could consume 13 per cent of electricity on the national grid within a decade make it clear that Labor must immediately halt its reckless fast-tracking of new data centres.
New AEMO forecasts show the number of proposed data centres seeking to connect to the national electricity market has more than doubled in just a year, from 97 to 225.
By 2036, data centres are now expected to consume 34TWh of electricity – almost as much as every household in Victoria and NSW currently uses combined.
The Greens say the extraordinary revision shows governments have completely underestimated the speed and scale of the data centre boom, while the Victorian Labor Government has been actively courting the industry and fast-tracking new developments.
The Victorian Greens have introduced legislation to Parliament for an immediate moratorium on new large-scale data centres while proper rules are put in place around energy, water, planning and community impacts.
In addition, they have put forward a parliamentary documents motion and FOI requests for any modelling forecasting the impacts of data centres including energy usage.
As stated by Victorian Greens AI and data centres spokesperson, Dr Sarah Mansfield:
“AEMO has just sounded the alarm on exactly what we’ve been warning about – the scale of this data centre boom is completely out of control. Labor has been approving first and asking questions later. These figures show how reckless that is.
“In just twelve months the number of projects in the pipeline has more than doubled and forecasts for their electricity use have skyrocketed. Yet Labor’s response in Victoria has been to roll out the red carpet and fast-track as many as possible.
“We are trying to replace coal, electrify homes and businesses and bring power bills down. Allowing multinational tech corporations to suddenly swallow 13 per cent of the grid fundamentally changes that task.
“Ben Carroll should close the floodgates he’s swung open for Big Tech and instead support the Greens’ moratorium today. Anything short of that is Labor saying they are fine with watching Victorians bills go up and our clean energy transition put at risk.”
