New South Wales
Australian state that introduced the Electricity Infrastructure Investment Amendment Bill 2026.
New South Wales, an Australian state, introduced the Electricity Infrastructure Investment Amendment Bill 2026 on 5 August 2026, letting its energy minister authorise or block grid connections for large electricity loads.
Last refreshed: 14 August 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Can New South Wales now block a data centre's grid connection outright?
Timeline for New South Wales
Introduced a bill letting its energy minister authorise or prohibit large-load grid access
Data Centres: Boom and Backlash: NSW gives its minister a grid vetoBackground
New South Wales is an Australian state whose energy minister gained new statutory power over grid access for large electricity users in August 2026.
The state introduced the Electricity Infrastructure Investment Amendment Bill 2026 on 5 August, letting the minister declare large-load access schemes that can authorise or prohibit grid connections for facilities drawing 5 MW or more, and allocate network-upgrade costs to the connecting party rather than spreading them to consumers generally . At that threshold the bill catches suburban colocation halls and single large enterprise sites as well as hyperscale campuses, so most data-centre development in the state now needs ministerial sign-off.
The bill followed the Australian Energy Market Commission's national advice to energy ministers, issued the same day, and came after Queensland and the Northern Territory dissented in July from a proposed national mandate requiring new load to be matched with new firming capacity.