By Daniella White
Publication Date: 2026-02-27 18:00:00
A multi-billion dollar flood of proposals for data centers in Melbourne’s northwest has sparked a volatile row over the bill for the expected renewal of the power grid needed to power the energy-hungry projects.
Jemena, owner of the region’s tower and wire infrastructure, is in a $260 million tug-of-war with federal regulators over how much the company can spend and then recoup from customers to modernize the network to meet additional demand.
Jemena had argued the company should be allowed to generate about $2 billion (in today’s dollars) in sales from customers in the five years to 2031 as it copes with an expected doubling of demand, the highest growth of any Victorian…
