Underground power supply to Wetherill Park data centres
Overview
This proposal aims to deliver a safe, secure and reliable electricity supply to support the development of critical data centre infrastructure in New South Wales, ensuring long-term resilience and efficiency for the growing digital economy.
It involves the construction of two new underground power cables through the Wetherill Park Industrial Commercial area, ensuring a reliable electricity supply for new data centres while maintaining the safety, reliability, and quality of power supply to surrounding businesses.
The proposal involves:
- trenching along various roads from Wetherill Park Zone Substation to the data centres site in Davis Road to install new cable ducts
- trenching short 50-100 metre sections immediately followed by backfilling and temporary restoration to minimise disruption and inconvenience
- underboring the Parramatta to Liverpool Transitway that crosses Davis Road near the Widemere Road intersection to continue the underground ducts without affecting the Transitway
- establishing temporary cable joint bays for each underground cable in Davis and Widemere Roads, which will be opened for a short periods during cable installation, jointing and testing
- the installation of the new underground power cables to supply electricity from the zone substation to the new data centres site
- permanent road restoration carried out after testing and commissioning of the power supply cables.
The location
The underground power cables will run 1.6 kilometres from the Wetherill Park Zone Substation (96-98 Redfern [Walter] Street, Wetherill Park) through the Wetherill Park Industrial Commercial area to the data centre site (3 Davis Road, Wetherill Park) running along Redfern Street, Hassall Street, Widemere Road, and Davis Road.
Figure 1 Proposed underground power cables route
Review of Environmental Factors
As the electricity Network Operator and determining authority for electricity network development activity, Endeavour Energy is assessing a Review of Environmental Factors (REF) for the proposal under Part 5 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, which includes inviting stakeholder comments. .
The REF details the benefits, and the potential environmental impacts and proposed mitigating measures to achieve a balance between community needs and the various environmental, technical and financial aspects of the development. The REF provides:
- the development description and justification (including benefits and objectives)
- an overview of the relevant legislative framework
- consultation completed during the assessment phase
- consideration of alternatives
- the environmental impact assessment and mitigation measures to be applied during construction and operation of the development.
Please see the draft REF for the proposal development.
Community correspondence
Stakeholder review and feedback is an important part of the environmental impact assessment process. Adjacent businesses and utility operators in the area have already been consulted about the proposal and will be notified prior to construction works commencing. Any planned electricity outages will be notified to customers and will be the minimum required to safely facilitate the development.
We welcome your feedback regarding the development by 3 July 2025.
If approved, a Notice of Determination, containing the development consent conditions and authorising the construction works, will be issued by Endeavour Energy for the development.
Project contact details
For further information or to make a submission, please contact Jason Chan at environment@endeavourenergy.com.au.