Keppel is expanding its landholdings in Australia, leasing a large site near Melbourne.

Keppel this week said its Connectivity Division has secured the rights to lease a 123-hectare contiguous site near Morwell, Victoria, with a gross power capacity of up to 720MW, from Australian energy and infrastructure landowner Lightwood Group.

Details around the potential number and specifications of any planned data centers weren’t shared. Inside Local Government reports the site is located near the former Hazelwood Power Station.

Morwell is a town in the Latrobe Valley area of Gippsland, approximately 152 km (94 mi) east of Melbourne.

Manjot Singh Mann, CEO of Connectivity, Keppel, said: “The site near Morwell offers significant scalability, with clear pathways to securing competitively priced green power, non-potable water for cooling, and low-latency fiber connectivity, making it a compelling location to site next-generation AI campuses.”

Mann added that the company is in “active discussions” with hyperscalers and neoclouds for the future capacity by the site, many of whom he said have expressed “keen interest” in Melbourne.

Lee Hui Fang, deputy CIO of data centers, Keppel, added: “Keppel’s deep operating capabilities allow us to execute powerbanking at scale – securing strategic sites early, undertaking critical front-end work and committing capital only when customer interest is clear. This approach enables us to deliver disciplined growth and strong returns to our limited partners.”

Keppel manages and operates 39 data centers with a total gross power capacity of more than 800MW across Asia Pacific and Europe, including projects under development, and has 1GW of gross power capacity in the pipeline.

Keppel Data Centres operates one data center in the Sydney area of Australia. The four-story Gore Hill facility is owned by Keppel DC REIT.

The Hazelwood Power Station is a decommissioned brown coal power station built between 1964 and 1971. The 1.6GW plant was made up of eight 200MW units and decommissioned in 2017.