VANCOUVER, British Columbia, 25 October 2026. New Zealand’s next data centres may depend less on new land than on land that already has power. DataCentering.com, a Vancouver company that turns existing buildings and land with grid connections into data centre capacity, is making its free Site Score and its Community Risk Assessment available to New Zealand landowners, developers, councils, iwi and operators.
The timing follows a busy year for data centre plans in New Zealand. On 31 August 2026, Transpower said it had 34 grid connection enquiries for data centres, 11 of them at or beyond the formal application stage. Transpower also notes that not every enquiry becomes a connection.
Two projects show where demand is heading. In August 2026, Contact Energy and CDC Data Centres announced they would explore a 250 MW data centre at Stratford, near Contact’s Taranaki Combined Cycle gas plant, which retired earlier in the year. Contact points to the site’s existing grid connection, 500 MW of consented grid-scale batteries and fibre to Auckland. Neither company has committed to build. In Southland, Datagrid holds consents from three councils for a data centre of up to 240 MW of IT capacity at Makarewa. RNZ reported it would become the country’s second biggest electricity user after the Tiwai Point smelter.
Power is a large part of the case. MBIE reports that 88.5 per cent of the electricity generated in New Zealand in 2025 came from renewable sources, the highest share since 1981.
Communities are asking hard questions as well. In 2026 a Southland community group asked the district council to review the Datagrid consent conditions over noise from cooling, generators and the substation. An independent commissioner declined the review in September 2026, and the council says it will keep monitoring compliance.
What it means for New Zealand:
Landowners and businesses. A retired plant, closed mill or industrial site with a big connection may be worth more for its power than for its buildings. The Site Score rates power, fibre, zoning, cooling and water, and community fit, separately for edge and hyperscale use.
Councils, towns and iwi. A Community Risk Assessment, delivered in ten business days, maps stakeholders and concerns early, so questions about noise, water, jobs and local benefit are asked before a consent hearing, not after. At Stratford, Contact says it is talking with iwi, councils, neighbouring landowners and the wider community, and the Datagrid consent file includes a cultural impact assessment by Te Ao Marama Inc.
Engineers, contractors and suppliers. The Prospecting Desk finds the owners and developers converting powered buildings in a firm’s territory and makes 50 or 100 calls a month in the firm’s name.
Data centre operators. DataCentering.com helps data centre operators sell their capacity to end users, doing that work for them, and its Prospecting Desk makes the calls and does the prospecting for them.
“New Zealand already has much of what data centres look for, including renewable power and industrial sites with grid connections. The work is finding those sites, proving the power in writing and making sure the town next door has a say,” said a spokesperson for DataCentering.com.
About DataCentering.com: DataCentering.com, based in Vancouver, B.C., turns existing buildings and land that already have power into data centre capacity. Its patent-pending method checks each site against five gates: power, permitted use, cooling and fibre, community readiness, and site control.
Media Release on 25 October 2026
Media Contact
Josephine, Client Relations, DataCentering.com
Email: josephine@datacentering.com