We wrote on 28 August 2026 about the state endorsing 15 data centre projects worth $51.9 billion through its investment fast-track. This is the other half of that story, and it is the half with a deadline on it.

The number

The consultation page states the connection queue plainly. Up to 28 GW of data centre connection requests as at July 2026, of which around 13 GW is described as being in advanced discussions. The government then supplies its own yardstick rather than leaving the reader to find one: 13 GW is more than the average daily electricity demand in NSW.

Read that against the region this masthead covers. The Hunter's generators, its transmission, and the closure dates that dominate every energy conversation here are all sized against the demand the state actually has. A single new customer class in advanced discussions for more than that, on top of it, is not a marginal change to the planning problem.

Separately, the same page records 20 data centre projects valued at $51.4 billion in the State Significant Development pipeline as at July 2026. That is a different count from the 15 endorsed projects worth $51.9 billion announced in March, because it is a different measure: one is the planning pipeline, the other is the list the Investment Delivery Authority endorsed. They are not in conflict and should not be added together.

What is being proposed, and why it matters to a household bill

The reform sits inside a three part NSW Data Centre Policy Framework: a set of planning Guidelines, the cost recovery reforms this consultation is about, and An IPART review to consider the full recovery of costs of water provision to data centre customers. Water is a genuine part of this and is being handled elsewhere.

The energy pillar is stated in one sentence: Pillar 2 will see the NSW Government progress regulatory reforms to ensure the cost of additional energy infrastructure investment to enable growth in the sector is recovered from data centre operators, imposing no net costs on households or businesses. The stated aim elsewhere on the page is that data centres can be connected and supplied without increasing electricity prices and risks for households and small businesses.

Why this lands on a power bill: network charges are not a small residual. On our own reading of the regulator's determinations, the network component is the largest single element of a Default Market Offer price, ahead of wholesale energy. Network build gets recovered from network users over decades. So the question of who is inside the group that pays for a 28 GW connection task is not a technicality, and it is the question this consultation is actually about.

The condition on all of it

The page says the feedback will inform new regulations intended to be made under the Electricity Infrastructure Investment Act 2026, subject to the Electricity Infrastructure Investment Amendment Bill 2026 being passed.

That conditional is doing real work and it tends not to survive into summaries. The protection being consulted on is a set of regulations that do not exist yet, under a Bill that the government's own page describes as not yet passed. We could not establish the Bill's current status. The NSW legislation site returns 403 to us, to a script and to a real browser alike, so we are recording that as a gap rather than reporting a stage we have not read. Anyone relying on the timing should check the parliamentary record directly.

How to put something in

Submissions are open from 17 August to 14 September 2026 at 5:00 pm AEST, by email, and the page asks for a subject line in the form Your Name – NSW Data Centre reforms public consultation. The department also ran a webinar on 24 August 2026 and has published the recording and the slides. The email address is on the consultation page, which we have linked rather than reprinting it here. One thing worth knowing before you write: Submissions will be published on this webpage unless confidentiality has been requested.

This is one of the rare energy consultations where the interest of an ordinary customer is easy to state: whether the rules end up recovering this build from the operators causing it, and what happens if the Bill does not pass in the form assumed. Four weeks is not long, and it closes in a little over a fortnight from publication.

How we did this

Built from the NSW Climate and Energy Action consultation page for the data centre network connection and cost recovery reforms, read on 28 August 2026. Every figure here is the government's own, quoted or attributed: the 28 GW and 13 GW connection figures and the comparison to average daily demand, the 20 projects and $51.4 billion pipeline, the three pillars, the Pillar 2 objective and the consultation dates. The $51.9 billion figure for the 15 endorsed projects is from the March ministerial release we reported on 28 August 2026, and the two figures are described as different measures because they are. We did not read the consultation paper itself, the webinar slides or the NSW Data Centre Guidelines, so nothing here characterises their contents. We could not read the NSW legislation register, which returns 403 to both a script and a browser, so the status of the amendment Bill is reported only as the consultation page describes it. We have not contacted the department, IPART, any network operator or any data centre proponent. No allegation is made against any party.

Sources

  1. NSW Climate and Energy Action, Reforms to electricity network connection and cost recovery arrangements for data centres in NSW (consultation page, read 28 August 2026): that submissions close on 14 September 2026 at 5:00 pm AEST and opened on 17 August; the 28 GW of connection requests and about 13 GW in advanced discussions as at July 2026; that 13 GW is more than the average daily electricity demand in NSW; the 20 projects and $51.4 billion in the State Significant Development pipeline as at July 2026; the three pillars of the NSW Data Centre Policy Framework including the IPART water review; the Pillar 2 objective of recovering costs from data centre operators with no net costs on households or businesses; the webinar of 24 August 2026 and its slides; the submission email format; and that the resulting regulations are intended under the Electricity Infrastructure Investment Act 2026 subject to the Electricity Infrastructure Investment Amendment Bill 2026 being passed.
  2. Our earlier report, the Investment Delivery Authority's endorsed rounds (28 August 2026), for the 15 endorsed data centre projects worth $51.9 billion, which is sourced there to the NSW ministerial release of 27 March 2026.
  3. Our explainer on who sets the network part of a power bill, for the network share of a Default Market Offer price and the determination process that recovers network investment.