Metronode signs $182m data centre contract with NSW Government

Metronode, a subsidiary of Leighton Contractors, has signed a $182m contract with the New South Wales Government under the Data Centre Reform project for the provision of two managed data centres in NSW.

The contract will see Metronode build two new large-scale, energy-efficient data centres in NSW - one located in Sydney’s inner west at Silverwater and the other in the Illawarra region at Wollongong’s southern suburb of Unanderra. When fully developed, each data centre will be capable of supporting up to 9 MW of IT load.

“The innovative new data centres will utilise direct free air-cooling and modular plant systems to deliver world-leading power utilisation efficiency. On-site rainwater retention and harvesting and an intelligent site monitoring system will provide further environmental enhancements,” said Malcolm Roe, Metronode’s General Manager.

“With our new technology , the average annual power usage effectiveness, or PUE, has a target of 1.2 compared to traditional data centres that operate at PUEs of up to 2.4,” Roe said. The contract has an initial 10-year term and will see more than 250 jobs created during the construction phase.

“Sydney is Australia’s largest data centre market and a key location for multinational corporations operating in Asia-Pacific. The NSW Government will be a key anchor client in the new data centres and, when fully developed, will have capacity to offer services to corporate and government agencies in Sydney, Canberra and the Illawarra,” Roe said. Metronode’s data centre design has recently been awarded the Uptime Institute Tier III Accreditation providing the NSW Government with real certainty on the reliability of Metronode’s facilities.

Peter McGrath, Leighton Telecommunications Executive General Manager, said this announcement secures Metronode as the NSW Government’s primary data centre supplier and also provides for the establishment of fibre-optic network infrastructure to support high-capacity connectivity between the facilities.

“This is one of many significant projects in which we are meeting the strong market demand from large carriers, enterprise and government customers for high end infrastructure-based services and mission-critical applications,” McGrath said. 

The new NSW data centres will complement Metronode’s existing data centres in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide and the rollout of new-generation eco-friendly facilities currently under construction in Melbourne and Perth. Metronode is using the BladeRoom energy-efficient modular data centre system for client-owned data centre design and construction projects, and its own multitenanted facilities across Australia and New Zealand.