Keppel bags 720 MW power bank for AI data-centre campus near Melbourne
The group is in ‘active discussions with hyperscalers and neoclouds’ on the site’s future capacity
[SINGAPORE] Asset manager Keppel on Thursday (Jan 15) announced that it has secured a 720 megawatt (MW) power bank for an artificial intelligence (AI) data-centre campus close to Melbourne, Australia.
The site is located south-east of Melbourne city, within the proposed Gippsland Renewable Energy Zone, one of the state’s largest electricity nodes.
Keppel said the move brings its pipeline of data-centre power-bank capacity from over 300 MW to “over 1 gigawatt (GW) of gross power capacity in the Asia-Pacific”.
As part of the expansion, the group’s connectivity division has secured the rights to lease a 123 hectare contiguous site near Morwell, Victoria, in phases and over time, from Australian energy and infrastructure landowner Lightwood Group. The site has a gross power capacity of up to 720 MW.
Keppel said it will pay Lightwood an “annual access fee to gain early access to the site for pre-development works”.
Such works, it added, include “obtaining planning approvals and contracting power and water, before its private data-centre funds take up long-term leases”.
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The site’s “ability to have a dedicated transmission connection to neighbouring power terminal stations provides the potential for power cost savings by bypassing the local distribution network”, Keppel noted.
The group added that existing water infrastructure and proximity to intercity dark fibre networks will “enable high-performance connectivity to Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra”.
Manjot Singh Mann, chief executive of connectivity at Keppel, said: “We are in active discussions with hyperscalers and neoclouds regarding the future capacity provided by the site, many of whom have expressed keen interest in Melbourne – one of Australia’s fastest-growing data-centre markets.”
Keppel pointed out that Melbourne is “rapidly emerging as a Tier‑1 hub for AI (artificial intelligence) and cloud workloads due to its relatively more attractive power and land costs compared to other markets in Australia”.
The city recorded a colocation vacancy rate of 4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2025. Demand is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 29 per cent from 2025 to 2029.
Keppel manages and operates 39 data centres with a total gross power capacity of over 800 MW across Asia-Pacific and Europe, including projects under development.
Shares of Keppel rose 1.1 per cent or S$0.12 to close at S$10.79 on Thursday, before the news.
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