A 1 GW data centre in Western Australia proposes to run on its own islanded microgrid
Serguey Asael Shinder2 min readGingerah Energy has referred Project Meridien, a 1 GW data centre paired with a 5,000 MWh battery, to Australia's federal government under the EPBC Act. The complex would sit about 100 km south of Broome, inside the Karajarri Native Title Determination Area in Western Australia's Kimberley region. Alongside the battery, the referral proposes roughly 5,200 MW of solar and 1,500 MW of wind from 250 turbines placed within the solar area, together feeding a data centre whose IT load — servers, computing and cooling — would reach up to 1,000 MW.
The defining detail is what the project does not include: a connection to any external grid. Power would move through an internal microgrid of overhead lines, on-site substations and underground infrastructure. The battery would be backed by cold-water storage for a closed-loop cooling system, plus dispatchable firming facilities and fuel storage. The referral names no battery technology, supplier or cost. Construction would come in stages set by IT load — 48, 120, 240, 620 and 1,000 MW — with the first stage of up to 240 MW built over two to three years. The site covers about 27,520 hectares, with up to 18,203 hectares, two thirds of it, set aside for assessment.
What it means
An islanded gigawatt data centre is a different animal from the usual "data centre strains the grid" story. By building its own generation, storage, firming and even its cooling-water reservoir behind a private microgrid, the project sidesteps the interconnection queue entirely — which, in most markets, is now the longest pole in the tent. That is the appeal and the risk in one. The appeal is speed and control; the risk is that every reliability guarantee a public grid provides must now be engineered on site, from a battery and firming plant sized to carry a 1 GW load through windless, sunless hours. The referral's silence on battery chemistry, supplier and cost is the gap to watch: islanding moves the hard engineering problem indoors, it does not remove it.