Power in data drives growth for NEXTDC and Jemena

If you’re working from home and saving documents remotely, browsing reels on social media, or gaming online, the data you’re creating and using is saved on cloud storage software. 

To satisfy the ever increasing need for data storage in our technology-led future, data centre provider NEXTDC has partnered with Jemena to increase power capacity to their M2 Melbourne data centre at Tullamarine in Melbourne’s north-west.

The agreement to upgrade power infrastructure at the site is part of NEXTDC’s plan for future growth, ensuring businesses can connect to cloud technology to enable working from home and buying online in a secure, reliable and sustainable way. 

As a long time and large Jemena electricity network customer, the NEXTDC M2 data centre will take the next step in facility growth and be upgraded to a 66 kilovolt (kV) voltage substation. This is the highest voltage available on Jemena’s network and is needed to the growth in demand for colocation data centre services across NEXTDC’s business. It is anticipated the necessary infrastructure upgrades will be completed by March 2024.

NEXTDC’s Chief Operating Officer, Mr Simon Cooper said this important milestone was reflective of the genuine collaboration between the two organisations to execute fast while ensuring future growth requirements of the digital economy can be met with reliable, sustainable power solutions.

“Digital transformation driven by cloud and co-located ecosystems continues to accelerate at an exponential rate and that ultimately means there is an equal necessity to provide innovative approaches to growing power connection and consumption,” Mr Cooper said. 

“M2 Melbourne has recently been expanded with 15 MW of new capacity added in recently. The site overall now has a future customer capacity target of 100MW. This needs customised, reliable power supply infrastructure that aligns with our uncompromising commitment to energy efficiency, sustainability and our 100 percent uptime guarantee to customers.”

NEXTDC are 100 percent carbon neutral, certified under the Australian Government's Climate Active program. In 2021, they launched their NEXTneutral carbon offset program which allows customers and partners to scale their digital infrastructure and hardware architecture with net-zero carbon footprint at minimal cost and with zero complexity.

“For less than the cost of a cup of coffee per KW, per month, customers can negate all the carbon footprint created by their digital infrastructure in our facilities using just two clicks in their data centre infrastructure management platform,” Mr Cooper said.

“Jemena, who is also a customer of ours, has opted-in to the NEXTneutral program and their infrastructure housed in our facilities has a net-zero carbon footprint, so there is clear alignment between our two organisations when it comes to sustainable business operations.

“That is important to us as we bolster our supply chains for exciting growth opportunities ahead.”

The key work involves the installation of two dedicated subtransmission lines, both installed with 66kV Gas Insulated Switchgear (GIS) technology to facilitate the electricity supply needed to operate the data centre. GIS infrastructure takes up less space compared to traditional air insulated switchgear, helping NEXTDC maximise their space for data storage rather than power infrastructure.

Jemena’s Commercial Manager – Electricity Distribution, Johan Ng, said the partnership represented a first for both organisations.

“This will be the first 66kV data centre with GIS technology that Jemena has powered, and the first NEXTDC data centre supplied by Jemena’s 66kV network. The agreement to establish a 66kV sub-transmission connection at the site is a growth opportunity for both our businesses and aligns with NEXTDC’s growth ambitions, delivering a step change in power supply to support the next stage of development of their M2 date centre. 

“This represents an increase of around five percent of demand to our network from just one customer, which is quite significant,” he said.

Mr Ng said the team at Jemena are focused on delivering innovative projects to create sustainable energy solutions. 

“We look forward to continuing to work with NEXTDC as both our businesses push towards our future targets, including net-zero by 2050,” he concluded.