Contact and CDC eye 250MW data centre for retired Taranaki gas plant site

Contact Energy and CDC Data Centres are exploring a 250MW data centre at Stratford, to be built near the site of Contact’s recently retired Taranaki Combined Cycle gas power plant and powered by new renewable generation.

The pair announced on Monday they will seek resource consent for the facility, which would be supported by co-located battery storage. The 250MW figure covers IT and compute load; total demand including ancillary systems would peak at around 350MW, subject to final design.

For a site that spent decades burning gas for baseload power, the proposed second act is a neat piece of energy transition symbolism. The TCC plant was retired earlier this year at the end of its operating life, leaving behind exactly what a hyperscale data centre needs: an existing grid connection and space, with 500MW of grid-scale batteries already consented at the site. Contact’s remaining 200MW of Stratford generation is unaffected.

Contact chief executive Mike Fuge says electricity for the facility would be supplied under long-term contract, supported by new generation from the company’s 11TWh pipeline of geothermal, wind and solar development options. Large-scale contracted demand of this kind underpins investment in new renewable generation and batteries, he says, rather than relying on existing supply.

“We believe Stratford shapes as an ideal location to explore a digital hub powered by renewable energy from where the local Taranaki economy can thrive, and the wider energy system and New Zealand can benefit,” says Fuge.

CDC, the Canberra-based operator half-owned by Infratil, brings the data centre expertise. Founder and chief executive Greg Boorer says the project would be “shaped by New Zealand’s energy capability, significant local ownership and long-term regional participation”, supporting customers across government, cloud, research and critical infrastructure.

Construction would generate more than 600 jobs at its peak, though neither company has committed to building yet. Work for now is limited to consenting, site preparation and securing anchor tenants and financing, with one pathway involving a Contact equity investment alongside CDC.

The announcement came alongside Contact’s full-year results, which reported a record $423 million net profit, up 27.8%, boosted by the Manawa Energy acquisition and higher renewable generation.

For the wider electricity system, the significance is in the demand model. Data centres anchored to long-term renewable contracts give generators the certainty to build new capacity, growing the same grid that an electrifying vehicle fleet will lean on through the 2030s.