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Sarah Ferguson presents Australia's premier daily current affairs program, delivering agenda-setting public affairs journalism and interviews that hold the powerful to account. Plus political analysis from Laura Tingle.
NORMAN HERMANT, REPORTER: In Melbourne's Yarraville suburb, Cameron Botterill is not a fan of his new neighbours. NORMAN HERMANT: From any angle, the new power poles are hard to miss.
CAMERON BOTTERILL: They're ginormous. They tower above anything else in the suburb and they look very industrial. We're in a residential area here and we did definitely not ask for them to be installed. NORMAN HERMANT: In July, Cameron was notified by his electricity distributor Jemena that the power would be shut off to allow workers to replace the poles on his street.
CAMERON BOTTERILL: Of course, I expected it to be replaced with exactly what was there before, a seven-metre kind of size pole instead of this kind of monstrosity that you see in front of us. NORMAN HERMANT: What appeared outside his house were 15-metre-tall industrial power poles rated to carry up 66,000 volts of electricity. All installed in one day when he went to a friend's office to do some work.
CAMERON BOTTERILL: I came home and I was kind of just in shock. I asked them what they were doing. I asked them why they'd installed this. They told me it was to run power to a data centre.
That data centre is at least over a kilometre and 1.5 K away at least. And so, I was shocked that this could be installed in a residential area. NORMAN HERMANT: The inner west of Melbourne is currently home to one operating data centre that's being expanded and two others that are proposed. Electricity distributor Jemena says it is upgrading the local network to help support Melbourne's growing energy needs.
Mechanical engineering professor Michael Brear says at the power levels required for things like data centres, the old seven metre poles have to be replaced. PROF. MICHAEL BREAR, MECHANICAL ENGINEER: These taller power poles are required mainly for safety reasons. When you have a large electrical load like a data centre, you supply it most economically at a higher voltage than typically you would in your home.
And in order to deliver that electricity economically and safely to those loads, you need to build these taller power poles and run the power in them, in the lines at a higher voltage. NORMAN HERMANT: When that work hit Paul Tyndale's house in inner western Spotswood in June, Jemena crews showed up on a Sunday, cut the power and then said due to a code issue, they couldn't reconnect it.
PAUL TYNDALE, SPOTSWOOD RESIDENT: We were kind of left on a Sunday morning with this issue around how to get our house repaired and reconnected. And they basically said, "We can't do anything. It's up to you. It's your problem.
"PAUL TYNDALE: The tradie who was disconnecting our house told my partner, "This is for the new data centre. " That was how we found out about it. That's how everyone round here found out about it NORMAN HERMANT: The company behind the proposed data centre now states on its website that the Spotswood poles are not part of its proposal and "are separate electricity network infrastructure works". One street decided to fight back.
In Yarraville, these neighbours saw the 15 metre poles go up a few blocks over. On the day Jemena came to their street, they left cars out, some with notes, to block equipment needed to install the poles. KATRINA DARDHA, YARRAVILLE RESIDENT: We were all just really caught off guard and just felt like it was really unfair that we weren't told about what was happening. So we wanted to get together, just get a feel of the street.
Everyone was infuriated. So we said, "No, enough's enough. MILCO BOGOEVSKI, YARRAVILLE RESIDENT: The night before, everyone decided this is not happening on our watch. We know it's happening up there, but it's not going to happen here.
We're going to take a stand because we're not getting answers from anyone. So the guys decided, hey, get your cars in the street. If you've got any extra cars, put them out there. If you've got any bins, put the bins out there NORMAN HERMANT: Eventually, unable to get their equipment in position, the Jemena crews filled in the holes they had prepared and left.
MILCO BOGOEVSKI: If you stay quiet, it's at your own peril. It really is. I haven't had to stand up for an issue like this for a long time. And I guess sometimes it takes something to make you really angry, to make you stand up.
And when you do stand up, you better make a lot of noise and that's rule one. NORMAN HERMANT: With Victoria's state election two months away, data centres and power poles are now issues that could hurt the Labor government. It announced guidelines for new data centres, limiting where they could be built, and requiring buffer zones and that they be powered by renewable energy.
This protest was held outside a federal senate committee public hearing on AI and data centres. Many here believe the new state guidelines are too little, too late. ELLA SJODIN, FOOTSCRAY RESIDENT: These will not apply to any of the existing or planned data centres. So they're only going to apply to future data centres that aren't yet planned.
And there's dozens and dozens that are already up and already planned. So I think it's just absolutely not good enough. NORMAN HERMANT: State MP Katie Hall's seat includes West Footscray where a large NextDC data centre is operating and seeking to expand under special development rules administered by the state's planning minister. KATIE HALL, MEMBER FOR FOOTSCRAY: I would say the data centre that we're speaking about here was not approved by the government.
NORMAN HERMANT: But it couldn't operate without the state allowing it to operate. A council can't simply allow a major industrial enterprise like this to start up, right? NORMAN HERMANT: But shouldn't your government have had some sort of oversight as to how the power was going to get to that data centre? KATIE HALL: Well, the system now is that we have a process where the planning minister can approve data centres.
NextDC applied for an application at the start of the year. I have opposed that application. NORMAN HERMANT: Hall says if possible power lines should be placed underground. That would be much more expensive for Jemena's network upgrade.
KATIE HALL: I think that that's an area where we need clarity. I think if infrastructure is just for one client, then it should be paid for entirely by that client and not by consumers NORMAN HERMANT: In response to questions from 7.30, Data Centres Australia said, 'Under the National Electricity Rules, large load users including data centres are required to pay 100 per cent upfront for their connection costs including any augmentations required to connect their site to the network.
'The company says it's heard feedback "that our communication and engagement could have been better", and it says it has "paused works and taking the time to listen to the community to understand their concerns. " But Cameron Botterill says the damage has been done. Come November, the government won't have his vote, and he says many neighbours feel the same way. CAMERON BOTTERILL: They're furious.
They're furious. Everyone's worried about property prices dropping. Everyone's worried about the fact that they're running high energy transmission through our suburb, and everyone's just frustrated Residents in Melbourne's inner west have been shocked to discover heavy-duty power poles needed to supply nearby data centres are on their streets.
Data-Centre Melbourne Spotswood
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