Electricity consumers will benefit from new, stronger rules to govern the increasing number of large data centres connecting to Australia’s main grid.
The nation’s energy rule maker, the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC), has made the reforms to ensure data centre connection rules keep pace with the industry’s projected power demands and the grid remains secure for consumers.
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Future energy demands are projected to grow as data centre numbers do and this demand is forecast to grow sevenfold, from 5TWh to 34TWh by 2035. The data centre share of electricity demand is expected to rise from around 3% to around 13%—equivalent to the amount of energy needed to power almost half of Australia’s homes.
“The existing access standards were developed for a very different power system dominated by traditional generation and relatively passive electricity loads,” AEMC chair Anna Collyer said.
“Our guiding principle is that once a customer is big enough to materially affect the grid, it must be treated as part of that grid. Our reforms will also ensure new data centre connections can proceed efficiently and securely, without unexpected costs or risks being pushed onto other electricity consumers.”
Data centres often use sophisticated power electronics that can respond very quickly to changes in the electricity system, however, during network disturbances, this technology can cause major supply disruptions.
To address this risk, the final rule introduces a number of proactive reforms, including:
- A clear 30MW threshold for large inverter-based loads, including large data centres, so that connections with the potential to materially affect the power system are subject to appropriate technical requirements.
- New technical standards requiring large inverter-based loads to ride through certain power system disturbances, rather than disconnecting unnecessarily when the system is under stress.
- A requirement for network businesses to consider the combined impact of nearby large inverter-based loads, recognising that several connections can interact with each other and have a greater collective impact than an individual connection.
- A requirement for AEMO to develop clear modelling guidance for large loads, with requirements designed to be proportionate to the potential impact of a connection and practical for industry to implement.
The final rule for Improving the NEM access standards – Package 2 is effective immediately. However, applicants who are advanced in the connection process and have negotiated their access standards will be given a 6-month grace period to finalise their connection.
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This allows connection applicants who are close to finalising negotiations with their Network Service Provider to use the old access standards, to minimise disruption to their applications. For more information about the new rule, visit the AEMC’s project page.
