DCI Data Centres to build 20 megawatt Canberra facility

DCI Data Centres has announced plans to open a 20 megawatt secure cloud edge data centre to service the Canberra market.

Called CBR01, the Tier III and Zone 3+ facility will be located just outside Canberra in the Poplars Innovation Precinct in Jerrabomberra, Queanbeyan, New South Wales. The data centre is aimed to be ready for service in 2024.

In its announcement, DCI chair Udhay Mathialagan said the facility is the first to respond to the government’s mandate to supply geographical and supply chain diversity for government and public cloud workloads at scale.

“This new data centre is the first site to offer true resiliency in power provision that not only answers a call from the government to support their Cloud First Strategy, but will provide unparalleled security for our customers. It will also be one of the major contributors in driving urban development within the new precinct,” he said.

CBR01 will also operate on a separate grid to Canberra due to a multi-party agreement and investment between DCI, Poplars and other power users, with Essential Energy building a new 132kV powerline for the precinct.

“This separate grid will support cloud services and [will also] provide resilience for the Canberra market and Capital Region. It also means that with our commitment to the site, we will expedite the development of the Precinct which will positively impact the region for future generations,” Mathialagan said.

DCI chief executive Malcolm Roe said the company’s fleet of highly certified data centres in Sydney, Adelaide, Darwin and now in the greater Canberra area completes DCIs Australian strategic growth plan to “provide a protective ring around the country”.

“We are delighted to announce that CBR01 closes the loop with the Canberra and Capital Region at our core,” Roe said.

“We have been aggressively implementing our growth strategy over the last two years which will inject $1.5 billion into the Australian economy and transform the way we work into the future.”

Adding to the 20 megawatt capacity, the new facility will also have eight data halls and dedicated secure offices and storage. DCI is aiming to increase the data centre footprint in the region to 100 megawatts by 2024.

“Our approach to construction has a laser focus on sustainability, including industry-leading delivery of new cooling technologies which significantly enhance our Power and Water Utilisation effectiveness,” Roe said. “This allows our customers to achieve a substantial reduction in energy costs and environmental emissions.”