In June, Transgrid said its Western Sydney network is almost full after it cleared 1.5 gigawatts (GW) of data centres to connect, and said it’s “in advanced discussions” over another 8 GW of prospective load.

The general rule of them is that network costs are fixed and divided by the number of customers. Given the boost in data centres, Ausgrid, which runs the poles and wires that take electricity from transmission lines to homes and businesses, wants to see the benefits of that improved network use now.