What oversight, if any, do government agencies have over the pipeline of data centres being established in New Zealand?

Answer

Proposed new data centres require land use resource consent through local and regional councils under the Resource Management Act planning rules. This process considers land use and environmental effects. With respect to electricity use, information about current and future large-load projects, including data centres, is collected by Transpower for long-term planning. Load demand information, including data centres, is published by the Electricity Authority as part of their generation investment pipeline dashboard. MBIE also assesses future electricity demand, including that from data centres, as part of its Electricity Demand and Generation Scenarios reports that inform electricity grid investment decisions.