At a glance
New Zealand's two disclosed projects above 200MW are both unbuilt, and the campaign billed 12 August as the country's first national day of action against hyperscale development.
Stop Data Centres NZ gathered outside the Data Centre Leaders Summit at Cordis Auckland, with actions also called in Christchurch and Palmerston North.
The group's petition asks for a pause on hyperscale approvals until the safeguards it lists are legislated.
Datagrid's 280MW Southland campus won consent in March 2026 and targets 2028, and Contact and CDC will seek consent for 250MW at Stratford.
BloombergNEF put the Texas grid audit at 49.8GW of data centre load delayed and US$8 billion to US$15 billion of project cost by early 2027.
Stop Data Centres NZ picketed the Auckland summit on 12 August
The Data Centre Leaders Summit New Zealand opened at Cordis Auckland on 12 August with a picket outside it. Stop Data Centres NZ gathered from 8am across Symonds Street from the venue. The New Zealand Herald reported that police advice had placed them there, four lanes of traffic and a sunken hotel entrance from the arriving delegates. The Herald put the Auckland turnout at about 25 people and the campaign's Facebook group at about 17,300 members, and the group billed the day as the country's first national action against what it calls AI factories.
New Zealand's largest disclosed operating facility is CDC's 54MW Hobsonville Campus Two. The two disclosed projects above 200MW are Datagrid's 280MW campus at Makarewa, consented in March 2026 and targeting 2028, and a 250MW Contact Energy and CDC proposal at Stratford that has not yet been lodged.
Arizton counts 208MW across 36 New Zealand colocation facilities
Arizton puts the operational market at 208MW across 36 colocation facilities in the June 2026 edition of its portfolio study. CDC holds about 98MW of that across three Auckland sites, TenPeaks 23MW across 11 sites and DCI's AKL01 10MW, with DCI's 40MW AKL02 under construction. Datacom operates five facilities, and capacity is undisclosed for those and for the Microsoft and AWS cloud regions.
The petition launched on 27 June and asks the House of Representatives to "pause or severely restrict further approvals for new hyperscale data centres" until the safeguards it lists are legislated. Those cover water oversight, protection of productive land, operator-funded firefighting training and a Commerce Commission review of how electricity costs are allocated. A petition reaches a select committee through Parliament's own system.
A spokesperson, in a statement issued on 12 August as the group extended into Taranaki, said the projects "are being pushed forward with limited public input and without clear rules that put New Zealanders first" and called for "a pause until strong, enforceable protections are locked in". Actions were called the same day outside the Palmerston North City Council building for 4pm, coordinated by Angela Culling, and at Christchurch's Bridge of Remembrance for 1.30pm.
Australia is having the same argument over a fleet it has already built, on operating capacity and connection queues, on what a community benefit fund would pay for, and on a moratorium call that came years into the buildout.
Datagrid signs a pre-purchase deal for a 360MVA substation
Datagrid disclosed an equipment pre-purchase agreement with Transpower for a 360MVA substation in the week of the summit, four high-voltage transformers supplied by Elsewedy Electric in an N-1 configuration, connecting to the 220kV lines that run from Manapōuri to Tiwai Point. Commissioning is targeted for late 2027 and no value was disclosed.
The Makarewa consents were granted on a non-notified basis in March 2026, which under the Resource Management Act means no public submissions were invited. Mercury holds a 140MW power purchase option over half the design and paid US$30 million for 12.7 per cent of the developer in July. The Tasman Ring cable contract went to Alcatel Submarine Networks and OMS Group on 31 July, for a 2,300km link from Invercargill to Torquay in Victoria targeting service in 2029. The consented 280MW is phase one of a campus Datagrid projects at 1,000MW at full build, and Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick says neither Transpower's 2025 Transmission Planning Report nor the government's Electricity Demand and Generation Scenarios account for that.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon rejected the Greens' one-year consenting pause in July and directed Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to develop a set of principles for the sector. Willis has since directed officials to work up measures aimed at keeping future data centres from lifting electricity prices, drawing on what Australia and other jurisdictions have done. Both pieces of work are still in progress, and the election is on 7 November.
Two governments and a court have moved data centre build dates elsewhere this year. Hillsboro, Oregon passed a 120-day moratorium on new data centre applications on 27 July, and STACK and Aligned lodged filings hours before the council vote. Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered an audit of every data centre in the state's grid queue on 3 August, before any further approvals. BloombergNEF put 49.8GW of load at risk of delay as a result, at a cost of US$8 billion to US$15 billion by the first quarter of 2027, depending on how much of the held-up capacity is AI compute. A Dutch court in April upheld a grid operator's refusal to connect a Goodman site on a network it found full to about 2035. In New Zealand the councils, Transpower and Willis's principles hold those decisions, against a 2028 opening target at Makarewa and a 2029 cable.
What to watch
Willis's principles. Willis and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet hold the work and have yet to announce its scope, which could land as guidance, as consent conditions or as legislation. Whoever forms the next government will choose, and the vote is on 7 November.
The petition's route into Parliament. It would have to be re-lodged through Parliament's own petitions system and presented by a member before a select committee could take it up.
Transpower's connection assessment for Makarewa. Datagrid holds consent and a substation order, and Transpower has still to finish the investigation stage in which it assesses technical feasibility and available capacity.
The Stratford application. Contact and CDC have named a 250MW figure and a site, with the application still to come. How it treats the existing grid connection, and the grid-scale batteries Contact chief executive Mike Fuge says are already consented, will set the reference point for the next retired thermal site.
We keep a running record of New Zealand data centre projects, their consent status, notification route, grid connection stage and recorded community opposition, and update it as each step moves.