Power Plant for Canberra

The whole point of building the power station (PS) is to provide a reliable source of emergency power for the new data centre (DC).

Actew have publicly stated that without the DC, the PS is not viable, and vice-versa.

By having the PS, the DC becomes cost-viable, because the proponents of the DC can sell it based on the high availability of power.

This gives them a competitive advantage, and the ability to charge higher-prices. These higher-prices can then be used to fund the PS.

Dante – a lot of data centre equipment (especially comms gear) can be ordered with a DC supply option. This is usually 48V DC, a common standard within telephone exchanges.

@Hairy Nosed Wombat – yes but that thread is about a data centre. This thread is about a power plant.

I’m afraid your on your own after this point as I get nasty quickly when I have to describe the difference between two distinctly separate objects.

I’m still waiting for data centres to change to 12v power… nearly every piece of PC equipment runs off pure 12v. If you were to run your data centre off 12v instead of stepping down 240 all the time, you’d save a heap on cooling and power costs in the data centre. Not only that, but you could submerge all of the servers in oil for liquid cooling and save even more electricity.

You might think someone like ACTEW might be keen to try some new power saving techniques…

Hmm. Considering the story Canberra a data hub target has this in the last sentance

Utility provider ActewAGL has also agreed to build facilities to power the site using gas piped from Bass Strait if power loads at the facility reach 40MW.

And these data centers are going to be built in Hume and Belconnen, then it makes sence that the power plant will be built in Hume (closest place in the ACT to Victoria) as it would cost so much more to lay a pipeline all the way from Hume to Belconnen.

I was reading just the other day that the current trend is for increased energy efficiency in data centres through naturally assisted cooling systems and virtual servers. Hopefully ACTEWAGL have updated their business case figures since they developed them a few years ago.

So, what suburb is going to form the power plant nimby protest organisation ?

Well, seeing as it is in Hume we can expect the Jerrabombera nimbies to be complaining again about the unfair treatment they get from the ACT.