Keppel is taking its data centre efforts to Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, with a new 720MW powerbank planned nearby existing coal-fired energy infrastructure and renewable energy integration.
This forms part of an Asia-Pacific (APAC) expansion for the Singaporean asset manager, bringing its APAC capacity to more than 1GW.
Keppel plans to position the data centre at a 123-hectare (ha) site near Morwell, having secured a lease and the ability to gain early access to the site for pre-development works.
The company said the site was situated in one of Victoria’s “largest electricity nodes”, with strategic positioning close to Melbourne, one of Australia’s “fastest-growing data centre markets”.
The site would benefit, in Keppel’s eyes, from the established electricity infrastructure in the region, with a dedicated transmission connection to nearby power plants providing “cost savings by bypassing the local distribution network”.
“Digitalisation and AI are reshaping global compute needs, and Keppel is positioning ahead of this megatrend by investing upstream to secure early and exclusive access to power, water, and fibre connectivity at strategic sites in key datahubs,” Keppel chief executive officer of connectivity Manjot Singh Mann said.
“Our powerbanking strategy enables us to deliver shovel-ready capacity at speed and scale, significantly shortening time to development and service readiness, and without overburdening our balance sheet.”
Singh Mann said Keppel was in discussions with hyperscalers and neoclouds, established and emerging forms of cloud infrastructure, respectively, regarding the 123ha site’s potential.
“The site near Morwell offers significant scalability, with clear pathways to securing competitively priced green power, non-potable water for cooling, and low-latency fibre connectivity, making it a compelling location to site next-generation AI campuses,” he said.
Keppel said Australia has a stable regulatory environment, reliable energy infrastructure and robust data security regulations making it amenable to data centre development.
“Melbourne, in particular, is rapidly emerging as a Tier 1 hub for AI and cloud workloads due to its relatively more attractive power and land costs compared to other markets in Australia,” the company said.
Keppel manages and operates 39 data centres across APAC and Europe. The company aims to add $10 billion to its data centre pipeline the years to come.
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