Macquarie Telecom to expand Macquarie Park datacentre campus

Macquarie Telecom is expanding its Macquarie Park datacentre campus from 10 megawatts of IT load to 43MW.

Intellicentre 3 (IC3) will be situated alongside the company’s Intellicentre 2datacentre, and is designed to “meet the growing needs of global hyperscalers and clouds, enterprise and government customers” the company said.

The first phase of the project – IC3 East – will boost capacity from a total load of 10MW to 26MW, and the second phase – IC3 West – will add a further 17MW.

The first data hall in IC3 will achieve “practical completion” by the end of next year with an opening day mechanical, electrical and plant of 2.4MW, the company said.

The initial capital expenditure of IC3 East will be $75 to $80 million.

“The new datacentre will be a Tier III+ facility with an Australian leading power usage effectiveness score of 1.28. It will be certified by Uptime Institute, built to meet Australian Government physical security standards, ISO 27001:2013, and support the delivery of credit card payment environments,” said Macquarie group executive, David Hirst.

Artists’ impression of the completed IC3

The expenditure will be partially offset by a fee from Keppel DC to the value of $26 to 36m for the development of IC3 East core and building shell, Macquarie said. The company will enter a 20-year lease with Keppel including options to renew.

The deal is similar to the one forged between Macquarie and Keppel in 2015.

“The investment will leverage not only the physical investment already on the site, but Macquarie’s 18-year track record of datacentre experience, industry-leading customer service, carrier neutrality and commercial flexibility,” Macquarie Telecom Group CEO David Tudehope said.

When IC3 is complete, Macquarie will operate four datacentres in Australia: IC1 in Haymarket, IC2 and 3 in Macquarie Park and its Canberra datacentre IC4, known within the company as “the bunker”.

The telco added that it intends to extend its ASD-certified government cloud into the new facility when complete.

Artists’ impression of the completed IC3