AGL sees powerful opportunity to host data centres at coal and gas hubs

Australia’s largest energy retailer views data centres as a major opportunity as it repurposes its ageing coal and gas centres into new energy hubs.

AGL Energy chairman Miles George told the company’s annual general meeting on Thursday the company had three energy hub sites with the combination of attributes data centres were looking for.

“I’m talking about Bayswater, Loy Yang and Torrens Island,” he said, referring to two of the company’s coal-fired plants in NSW and Victoria, and its gas-fired power station in South Australia.

Those sites had large areas of available land, water infrastructure and available power, he said.

“The second way that we would benefit from data centres, which we consider to be a really major opportunity is the increased demand, which is in the power system generally,” Mr George said.

That obviously supports a stronger demand for AGL’s operating assets, he added.

In an investor presentation in May, AGL noted data centre expansion was driving a strong demand for electricity, particularly in NSW, Victoria and ACT.

Operational data centres account for about five terawatt hours of energy demand in Australia, which is expected to double once projects under construction are operational and ramp up to full capacity.

If all the data centre projects currently in development in the National Electricity Market come to fruition, that would mean another 25 terawatt hours of forecast demand, AGL said.

That’s a combined forecast of 34 terawatt hours, “which is enormous”, chief executive Damien Nicks told the Macquarie conference during the presentation.

Not all the projects may make it to final construction, but it was still a significant opportunity, he said.

AGL’s AGM wrapped up quickly, with just five shareholders asking questions.

AGL shares were trading on Thursday at $8.04, down 1.5 per cent from Wednesday’s close.

Source: AAP