CDC plans to lift Marsden Park data centre to 743.5MW

At a glance

• CDC Data Centres plans to lift its Marsden Park campus in western Sydney from 504MW to 743.5MW, without making the site any larger.

• An October 2026 update to neighbours sets out the plan, and CDC expects a state decision in mid 2027.

• The NSW planning department is assessing a change to the November 2025 approval that keeps the 499MW under the state consent.

• That change moves most of the load into two 144MW buildings and turns a third planned building into a 5MW data hall with offices.

• The approved campus carries A$3.1 billion of investment, 220 construction jobs and 265 operational jobs.

CDC Data Centres plans to lift its Marsden Park campus from 504MW to 743.5MW on the same land. The company set out the plan in an October 2026 update to residents near its Hollinsworth Road site, and Capital Brief reported it on 4 November.

At 743.5MW, the campus would add 239.5MW, an increase of about 48 per cent on the 504MW the campus is approved for. NSW approved six data centre buildings in November 2025, with A$3.1 billion of investment, 220 construction jobs and 265 operational jobs. Infratil, the Future Fund, the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation and CDC's management own the company.

The NSW planning department is now assessing a change to that approval. It keeps the approved load but redraws the campus around two 144MW buildings. The update expects the department to put the capacity increase on exhibition in late 2026 and to decide it in mid 2027.

Two Marsden Park buildings take 144MW each in the change under assessment

The change is the first modification to the Marsden Park consent, and it is now at the assessment stage. Patch Planning prepared the report for CDC under section 4.55(1A) of the NSW planning act. That section allows a consent to be changed when the project stays substantially the same.

MP2 and MP5 would carry 288MW between them, about 58 per cent of the 499MW under the state consent. MP2 rises from 79MW to 144MW and MP5 from 84MW to 144MW. Two other buildings drop from 84MW to 61MW each. MP3 keeps its 84MW.

The building approved as MP4, a four-storey 84MW data centre, becomes a two-storey administration building with a 5MW data hall and central offices. At 18m, it stands about 17m below the typical approved height. MP2 and MP5 gain 7m acoustic screens for the plant moved onto them, and reach a maximum height of 36.7m. MP5 and MP6 each gain a floor of front-of-house space for building administration and offices.

Source: Patch Planning, S4.55(1A) Modification Report for CDC, October 2026, Table 4. The report renumbers the buildings; names shown are the new ones. The first building, MP1, has a separate local approval and is not in the table.

The report gives the reason as "future client demand". Floor area across the state-approved buildings falls from 279,650 square metres to 203,553 square metres. The report gives two reasons. Plant and loading areas were counted in error in the approved figures, and the administration building is 40,496 square metres smaller than the data centre it replaces. The report keeps campus-wide caps of 277 chillers and 240 generators.

CDC's 743.5MW plan adds generators and chillers to the campus

Customer demand drives the larger plan, according to the October project update. The company's customers "include governments, essential services, financial institutes and other mission-critical providers", and they tell it "they will need access to more data centre capacity in the future". Smaller and more efficient equipment lets the company "use the same floor space to deliver greater capacity", the update adds.

The higher capacity needs "additional diesel generators" and "additional chillers and roof plant". The generators would run only for mandatory testing or in "the extremely rare case of an emergency", according to the update. Acoustic screening heights would change, so the buildings would look different from some angles. The company is working with Transgrid to upgrade supply in Marsden Park, and the update states the change will not affect residential electricity supply or prices.

We expect the 743.5MW increase to go on exhibition as a further change. The change now under assessment keeps the plant caps, and the update ties the extra capacity to more generators and chillers.

NSW approved the A$3.1bn campus in November 2025

The campus is a state significant development, a category the NSW planning department assesses instead of the local council. An acting director approved it under delegation on 27 November 2025. The NSW government said the assessment took 12 months. The consent allows a maximum power consumption of 720MW across six data centre buildings. The department's assessment report puts the IT load at 504MW in six four-storey buildings, and the modification report counts 499MW of that under the state consent and 5MW in the separately approved MP1. The NSW government announced it the next day as the "Southern Hemisphere's biggest data centre".

The 20.91-hectare site is about 36km north-west of the Sydney CBD, beside the Costco and IKEA stores at Marsden Park. Civil construction is under way to form the building pads, according to the modification report. The company's Marsden Park page expects construction to continue into 2029, with more than 3,000 workers on site at the 2027 peak. Our 2026 to 2030 capacity guide counts the campus in 2029.

Marsden Park 1 is among seven data centres CDC has delivered since FY25, according to Infratil's September investor pack. The campus's first building, MP1, has its own 5MW approval from the Sydney Central City Planning Panel. Marsden Park is one of CDC's Sydney sites under construction. It sits in the Blacktown council area, which holds the largest cluster in our guide to data centres in Western Sydney.

Next door, the company is upgrading the driveway and car park of the mosque run by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association. Operating noise will not rise under the plan, according to the update, and noise studies will cover nearby homes including those on Stockholm Avenue. The update asks neighbours for feedback in an online survey, and notes the height changes may be more noticeable from parts of Hassall Grove to the south.

A US customer has 555MW contracted across CDC's new campuses

Infratil, CDC's largest shareholder, announced a 555MW contract on 5 May 2026 with a "United States high-end investment grade customer". The contract runs for up to 30 years, including renewal options of up to 20 years. It covers "CDC campuses that are already under development", with the capacity coming online over FY28 and FY29. The investor day pack of 16 September describes "substantial investment underway to deliver multiple large scale data centres at CDC's Marsden Park campus across FY28-29".

Our read is that 144MW buildings suit a customer taking capacity in large blocks, as the 555MW customer is. CDC had 1.1GW of contracted capacity at 30 September, after a further 70MW, according to Infratil's valuation update of 7 October. We ranked CDC first among Australian operators in our October Power Rankings, and Infratil told investors in October that CDC's power timelines are on track.

Outside Sydney, CDC's scoping report for a 1.4GW campus at Wagga Wagga in the NSW Riverina came out in September.

Blacktown council is assessing an upgrade of the first building to 12.5MW

MP1 sits outside the state consent, so its changes go to Blacktown City Council. The council application for MP1, DA-26-00662, was lodged on 8 June 2026. It would take the building from 5MW to 12.5MW using "infrastructure associated with MP2", according to the modification report. Council's tracker lists it as in progress, at an estimated cost of A$12.45 million.

The modification report also lists a 330/11kV substation and twelve high-voltage switchroom buildings in the updated scope of the state consent.

What to watch

• Exhibition. CDC's timeline puts the capacity increase on public exhibition in late 2026, when residents can make formal submissions.

• The decision. CDC anticipates a determination in mid 2027, while the structural build runs from July 2026 to November 2027 on its website timeline.

• MP1 at 12.5MW. The outcome of DA-26-00662, now with Blacktown City Council, will set the capacity of the campus's first building.

Hero image: CDC Data Centres artist's impression of the Marsden Park campus (stylised sky).