The exponential growth of data centres in Australia is focusing switchboard manufacturers on the need to prepare to meet these facilities’ uniquely different needs.
Australia had more than 300 data centres at the start of 2024, with Sydney the most intensive concentration of the facilities, according to the Cloudscene data centre ranking organisation. Sydney is also listed as a Tier One global Top 10 Data Centre Market, along with, in the Asia-Pacific, Beijing, Singapore, Tokyo, and Shanghai.
This expanding total and scale of centres places us within the top 10 countries globally by data centre numbers – way behind the 5,388 approx. in the US, but growing apace with larger countries such as Germany (522), UK (517), China (449), Canada (336), France (315), and ahead of the Netherlands (300), Russia (255), and Japan (219).
What is especially significant locally and internationally is the growth in the scale of data centres, driven by factors such as the surge in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and the huge demands it puts on efficient switchgear. Some of these centres are now 20 times larger than they were a few years ago. A ‘big’ five-megawatt data storage centre of two to three years has morphed into a facility of over one hundred megawatts now.
Data Centre growth on this huge scale such as this is compounding globally and locally, despite long lead times in data centre construction in areas such as Australasia, off the back of shortages of certain materials such as chips and transformers, as well as shortages of suitable sites.
“Plus there is an enormous and evolving variety in data centres to consider, which, as suppliers to this increasing market, we need to understand,” says NESMA NSW President, Scott Emerson, whose company, Controlling Power, manufactures switchboards for major market verticals including data facilities. Focused on need to bring innovative products and enthusiasm to rapidly changing markets, Controlling Power took its first steps in 2016 to create a business concentrating special capabilities to meet the demands of rapidly changing and expanding technology landscapes.
“Data centres are one such area – there is no ‘one size or type fits all’ solution in data centre environments,” says Scott. “Every data centre has its own unique power requirements. Data Centre managers and suppliers must get together very early in the process to determine how much power is required for their data centre to function, so as to determine what switchgear is best suited for the job. The one thing that is consistent throughout the data centre production is the ever increasing demand for power consumption.”
Two types of switchgear must be considered:
- Low voltage switchgear, generally using 400VAC volts of electric power. Low voltage switchboards include compartments such as circuit breaker compartments, busbar compartments, and cable compartments which assist in delivering energy to a data centre.
- Medium voltage switchgear using 1,000-69,000 volts of electric power. Medium voltage switchgear can also be known as gas-insulated switchgear, metal-clad switchgear, metal-enclosed switchgear, pad-mounted switchgear, vault/subsurface switchgear, and arc-resistant switchgear depending on what it utilises to deliver energy to a data centre.
The general definition of data centre switchgear refers to the critical infrastructure components within a data centre that facilitate efficient and reliable distribution and redundancy of electrical power to various equipment and systems. Typically, it consists of electrical switchboards, circuit breakers, transformers, UPS systems, backup generators, and other protective devices, all designed to maintain and control the flow of electricity.
“As with many switchgear markets, data centre switchgear plays a vital role in ensuring uninterrupted power supply, load balancing, fault protection, and overall operational stability of the data centre environment,” says Scott.
By managing power distribution, well designed switchboards help maintain uptime and protect information in data centres vital to Australian communities. These include huge slices of the economy, including energy, financial services, government, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, media, technology, and transport, incorporating aerospace and logistics.
Scale of the Growth
Let’s look at the scale of the centres growing up to service this demand, which, in addition to the smallest modular types, include:
Hyperscale data centres, also known as cloud data centres, serve 10,000-plus servers, cost up to $US1 billion to build, and have the greatest need to ensure protection of their assets from physical threats. Their customers include the world’s largest web services providers.
Enterprise facilities are private facilities owned by companies on the Fortune 500 top 20, with revenues up to $US600 billion. Enterprise data centres often store and manage data such as customer information and sensitive financial records.
Co-Located centres, also known as CoLos and Multi-Tenant Data Centres, (MTDCs) used by multiple companies. These include:
- Retail CoLos, where the owner manages operations, cooling, and security. Customers are required to manage only their own cage equipment, including multiple cabinets and racks
- Wholesale CoLos, leased to a single user or customer
- Managed Services CoLos, fully managed by a third party
Edge Data Centres, also known as Micro Data Centres, are smaller decentralised facilities that provide data storage in a location closer to where data is being generated and used. They are typically situated near their intended users, allowing for real-time processing and analysis. Edge data centres include Micro Edge (smaller) or Metro Edge (larger) data centres. While smaller in footprint, such centres are also experiencing high growth with 5G, AI, and streaming.
Issues facing the industry
Apart from the sheer scale of growth, the special needs of the data industry that must be considered include:
- Sheer amount of power required at a given site. A 110MW site will use 1/6 of the power generated by one of the 660MW alternators at Mt Piper or Bayswater, for example. The Australian Energy Council – reporting this year on projections by Morgan Stanley Research – says the grid is expected to be able to accommodate the energy demand from data centre growth until 2030, but it could become constrained in the 2030s as we see more coal plants exit the market, unless there are efficiency gains or development of new generation capacity.
- Capability of Australian manufacturing to meet the stringent compliance issues involved. As global efforts to achieve net-zero emissions intensify, Australian data centres – with the high energy consumption common to data centres internationally – may well find themselves in the spotlight of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) regulations. We can see a precedent in the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which entered into force in January 2023, requiring a broader set of large companies, as well as listed SMEs, to report on sustainability.
- This in turn will increase demand for switchboard manufacturing space to respond to rapidly evolving requirements (especially considering the growth in this market means more specialised products, which can have longer lead times as we respond to changing market needs).
“So the switchboard manufacturing industry, and our electrical distribution industry peers, will face multiple challenges and opportunities in the years immediately ahead,” says Scott.
“As members of NESMA, our role as the voice of the industry, will expand – not only as a source of guidance and standards for our own section of industry, but also as a vital advocate and contributor of knowledge, needs and experience to broader industry of which we are part. It is in all of our interests,” he concludes.
