Zerra DC's 2.16GW Western Downs proposal would draw near its peak around the clock

Forty-seven gigawatt-hours a day over 24 hours is an average draw of about 1.96GW ^[1]. Against the stated peak of 2.16GW ^[1], that is roughly 91 per cent ^[2]. The 1.5-million-household comparison in the proposal ^[1] works out to about 1.44kW per household ^[6], which is an average number. Households peak in the evening and fall away overnight. A load averaging 91 per cent of peak sits near that peak overnight as well.

The ABC puts the increase at 25 per cent of Queensland's daily electricity use ^[3]. Its own figures give 27.6 per cent if you divide 47GWh by the current 170GWh average ^{[6] [3]}, and 21.7 per cent if you measure the new load as a share of the larger total ^[4]. Either figure puts one customer at roughly a quarter of a state's daily energy. The paddock is usually home to cattle ^[4].

A Zerra DC spokesperson said the digital park would connect directly to the major substation instead of relying on Ergon Energy's local distribution to the small surrounding towns ^[11], and described that substation as a "critical electrical junction" sending power to south-east Queensland and New South Wales ^[10]. By the developer's own description, then, the new load lands at the node that exports to Brisbane and across the border. Andreas Helwig, an associate professor at the University of Southern Queensland, said "Getting this wrong will impact grid stability and cost to consumers" ^[7].

The federal government has outlined plans for developers to use renewables as the national standard for data centres, while the Queensland and Northern Territory governments have pushed gas or coal ^[12]. Premier David Crisafulli has lobbied for an "energy-agnostic" approach, arguing that new generation built alongside the projects would lower prices ^[13]. "By virtue of doing that, it can in fact help us drive down power prices," Crisafulli said on a recent trip to the US, where he met AI companies ^[14]. Climate Finance Energy director Tim Buckley said gas would have an "important small and declining" role, mainly backing up renewable generation ^[17]. "We need to embrace these industries of the future, but we've got to make sure they're not powered by industries of last century," Buckley said ^[18]. The site already sits near three gas-fired power stations, along with solar and wind farms ^[10].

Approval could take years, and construction four to six after that ^[9]. Buckley said the demand increase would need to be matched by investment in new generation ^[15], and the ABC reports experts calling for new generation assets as soon as possible ^[22]. Liza Balmain, a cotton and grain grower an hour's drive south and a spokesperson for the anti-gas group Save Our Darling Downs, said she was not opposed to data centres but wanted guidelines on what natural resources they would require ^[20]. "As we've seen with coal seam gas, it can fracture communities," she said ^[21].

The headline capital figure works out to about $14.8 billion per gigawatt of peak capacity ^[5]. Generation to serve the load is not inside that number ^[15]. Chip supply does not come up in the ABC's account ^[23], where the constraint under discussion is energy: new generation, grid stability, the connection itself ^[22].