At a glance
AEMO counted 17 data centre projects and 9GW of maximum connection capacity in the National Electricity Market connection process at 30 June.
AEMO's March quarter reporting counted 11 projects and 5.4GW, so the queue is six projects and 3.6GW larger three months on.
Almost all of that increase sits at the application stage, the first step of a connection process AEMO puts at about two years.
South Australia holds 17% of the queue, with New South Wales on 52% and Victoria on 31%.
Operating data centre demand averaged 451MW in New South Wales and 204MW in Victoria over the June quarter.
AEMO counts 9GW of data centre connection capacity at 30 June
AEMO's media release on the June quarter Quarterly Energy Dynamics report, published on 28 July, counts 17 proposed data centre projects moving through the National Electricity Market's transmission connection process, with a combined maximum connection capacity of 9GW. Twelve of those projects, representing 7.6GW, sit at the application stage, which is where a proponent lodges its connection request. Five, representing 1.4GW, have moved to implementation, where the connection is designed and built.
New South Wales holds 52% of the capacity, Victoria 31% and South Australia 17%. On a 9GW total, that is roughly 4.7GW, 2.8GW and 1.5GW.
AEMO notes that realised demand is typically lower than the connection capacity. Each project's figure is the maximum draw its proponent has asked the network to accommodate.
Twelve projects and 7.6GW sit at the first connection stage
At the end of the March quarter the same process held 11 projects and 5.4GW, with seven projects at 4.1GW in application and four at 1.3GW in implementation. New South Wales accounted for about 60% of that capacity and Victoria about 40%.
Connection process | 31 March 2026 | 30 June 2026 |
|---|---|---|
Projects | 11 | 17 |
Maximum connection capacity | 5.4GW | 9GW |
Application stage | 7 projects, 4.1GW | 12 projects, 7.6GW |
Implementation stage | 4 projects, 1.3GW | 5 projects, 1.4GW |
Source: AEMO quarterly energy dynamics reporting, Q1 2026 and Q2 2026.
Application-stage capacity is 3.5GW higher than it was at 31 March, and implementation-stage capacity is 0.1GW higher. The project count in implementation went from four to five.
AEMO put the timeframe for large data centre connections at approximately two years from application to energisation in its June update, with timelines varying by project readiness and system conditions. Application is the first of those stages, and 7.6GW of the 9GW has not yet cleared it.
South Australia takes 17% of the national queue
South Australia accounts for about 1.5GW of the 9GW, three months after the queue ran across New South Wales and Victoria in a roughly 60:40 split.
IREN, which is headquartered in Sydney, announced a transmission connection agreement on 3 June for an 800MW campus at Bundey in South Australia, its first announced Australian data centre project. AEMO publishes regional shares without identifying individual applicants, and Bundey accounts for roughly half of South Australia's queue share on its own.
South Australia also has a proposed data centre and AI infrastructure act, which Capital Brief reported on 23 June is built on a principle of "new energy for new demand", matching demand growth with new firmed supply.
Quinbrook's Supernode campus sits beside Powerlink's South Pine
Investment manager Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners is developing the Supernode campus at Brendale, north of Brisbane. Quinbrook says the site is adjacent to the South Pine switchyard, "the central node for the Queensland electricity transmission network", with three separate high voltage transmission connections and capacity for up to 2GW-IT.
All 9GW of the queue sits in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia on AEMO's regional split. That count runs through the transmission connection process, and AEMO's June update says it "is working with distribution network service providers (DNSPs) to improve future visibility of distribution connections".
Powerlink, which owns and operates the Queensland transmission network, wrote in its 2025 Transmission Annual Planning Report that data centre expansion in New South Wales and Victoria has "not translated to date in Queensland", with "minimal enquiries or developments progressing beyond preliminary stages", and that it has not included specific data centre projects in its current load forecast. It cites AEMO's 2025 Inputs, Assumptions and Scenarios forecast of 90GWh of annual Queensland data centre consumption from 2025/26 to 2054/55.
Queensland has held a stated position on the national energy rules since May, when Treasurer and Minister for Energy David Janetzki said the state expects "to see details on costs, benefits, and risks before agreeing to any national proposal" that affects Queensland's energy system and electricity bills. The Queensland Data Centres Council launched in July as a state advocacy body, and Queensland attracts data centre investment through its Advance Queensland and digital-economy roadmaps.
New South Wales data centres averaged 451MW in the June quarter
New South Wales and Victoria host most of the operating data centres in Australia, and AEMO reports data centre demand in both. In New South Wales it averaged 451MW over the June quarter, up 35% year-on-year. In Victoria it averaged 204MW, nearly double the 104MW recorded in the June quarter of 2025, alongside higher industrial load.
Both figures moved up from the March quarter, when New South Wales averaged 398MW and Victoria 187MW. Four new Melbourne campus applications sit at Mickleham, Truganina, Campbellfield and Clyde North, carrying about A$5.1 billion of disclosed investment across the two costed sites.
New South Wales and Victoria together averaged 655MW of data centre demand in the June quarter, against the 9GW in the connection process. AEMO's June update on data centre connections says large data centres typically ramp up over five to ten years, so a connection reaches full draw well after it energises.
NEM-wide underlying demand reached a June quarter high of 24,220MW, which AEMO puts down to electrification, population growth and data centre loads offsetting the effect of warmer May and June weather on heating.
Distributed solar set a June quarter record at 2,520MW
Distributed solar generation across the National Electricity Market averaged 2,520MW over the quarter, a June quarter record and 6.9% above last year. Operational demand still rose during daytime hours, which AEMO puts down to home battery charging together with growing industrial and data centre loads outpacing the growth in distributed solar output.
Economic offloading of wind and grid-scale solar, where generators are switched back because prices make running uneconomic, averaged 349MW across the quarter, up 105MW or 43% year-on-year. Wind accounted for 268MW of that and grid-scale solar for the remaining 81MW, which fell 13% year-on-year.
The solar component is the part a daytime load can absorb. December 2025 modelling by consultancy Baringa for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation projects that additional midday data centre load consumes renewable generation that would otherwise face market curtailment, worth 1.4TWh in New South Wales in 2030 under one scenario. South Australia set a June quarter minimum operational demand record of 57MW at 1330 on Saturday 18 April, down from the previous June quarter low of 157MW set in 2023.
Energy ministers agree to pursue a data centre offset mandate
The Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council's 28 July communique records ministers agreeing to progress regulatory arrangements to "mandate that data centres offset their electricity demand by investing in additional renewable generation located in the jurisdiction where the data centre is located, unless the jurisdiction opts out of this requirement, for example where it is too small to host its own renewables". Queensland and the Northern Territory were not party to that agreement. It follows advice from the Australian Energy Market Commission on a suite of regulatory options, and compliance would run through a guarantee of origin scheme. The communique separately records that "Queensland dissented from this Communique".
Ministers agreed, with Queensland and the Northern Territory opposing, to develop National Electricity Rule change requests for the council to consider in September. Those changes would treat data centres in the National Electricity Market as market participants and have them demonstrate that they can offset demand by procuring new renewable generation, adequate firming and demand flexibility. The Australian Government will separately amend the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting scheme to strengthen reporting requirements on data centre energy use.
Data Centres Australia chief executive Belinda Dennett told AAP that "a one-size-fits-all approach will not work and may well be counterproductive".
National Cabinet takes up the AI Standards in August
Ministers supported, again with Queensland and the Northern Territory opposing, the Australian Government's commitment to legislate nationally consistent standards so that large-scale data centres underwrite new renewable power supply and consumers face no price impacts, with states and territories to have the opportunity to build in more stringent local requirements. Ministers committed to support consideration of the AI Standards by National Cabinet in August.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's 15 July announcement said those standards will set out clear rules for large data centres, "including a legal obligation to underwrite their own new power supply, pay their full share of connection costs so energy bills are not impacted, reduce power when needed to strengthen the grid, and be as water efficient as possible", alongside a promise of faster approvals and an Office of AI inside the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
Ministers discussed AEMO's forecast that data centre electricity use will rise to around 10% of demand in the National Electricity Market by 2050. AEMO's 2026 Integrated System Plan found that additional data centre demand does not materially change the relative performance of its candidate development paths. Transgrid, which owns and operates the New South Wales transmission network, has proposed a rule change requiring new large users to pay for their full connection capacity whether or not they use it.
What to watch
National Cabinet considers the data centre standards in August, and the National Electricity Rule change requests go to energy ministers when they next meet in September. AEMO's September quarter report, due in late October, gives the third quarterly reading of the connection queue and the first that can show application-stage capacity converting into implementation. Powerlink publishes its next Transmission Annual Planning Report later this year, carrying an updated Queensland load forecast. South Australia entered the regional split this quarter at about 1.5GW.