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Team Name:

Grid Gurus

Team Members:

Evidence of Work
#ai #data centers #infrastructure #urban planning

AI-SITE: Strategic Data Center Planning

Project Info

Grid Gurus thumbnail

Team Name

Grid Gurus

Team Members

Ryan Ng and 2 other members with unpublished profiles.

Project Description

AI-SITE is a robust scoring system and analytical framework that identifies the most suitable locations for data centres across Australia. By combining connectivity, energy costs, climate risk, and population access into a single validated metric, AI-SITE provides data-driven insights for strategic decision-making. The project integrates principal component analysis (PCA) to highlight key drivers of suitability. We also have plans for future multi-criteria optimization to explore Pareto-optimal trade-offs, supporting flexible and resilient AI infrastructure planning.

#ai #data centers #infrastructure #urban planning

Data Story

In this project, we analyzed public datasets on Australian infrastructure, energy grids, transport networks, population density, and climate risk to evaluate every local government area (LGA) in the country. The AI-SITE Index combines multiple factors into a single, validated score to rank LGAs for data center suitability. PCA was used to identify the main drivers of suitability, revealing that proximity to infrastructure dominates the decision. Future plans include multi-criteria optimization to explore trade-offs between cost, connectivity, and risk, providing decision-makers with a spectrum of optimal options for strategic AI infrastructure planning.

Evidence of Work

Video

Homepage

Team DataSets

Population Grid (2024)

Description of Use Used to estimate demand centres for data services and assess the possible workforce.

Data Set

Transport Infrastructure

Description of Use Used to measure accessibility for construction and maintenance, and logistics efficiency.

Data Set

Flood Risk Maps

Description of Use Used to evaluate natural disaster risk and avoid high-risk regions.

Data Set

Cyclone Risk Areas

Description of Use Used to identify cyclone-exposed regions, reducing long-term risk for data centres.

Data Set

Annual Temperature Data

Description of Use Used to assess cooling efficiency as cooler regions reduce operational costs of data centres.

Data Set

Ausgrid outage records

Description of Use Used to measure energy reliability and highlight regions with frequent disruptions.

Data Set

Bushfire Risk (FFDI datasets)

Description of Use Used to assess environmental risk and exclude areas prone to extreme bushfire danger. Contribute to the risk score of data centres.

Data Set

Electricity Transmission Lines

Description of Use Used to evaluate connectivity to the grid and infrastructure resilience.

Data Set

Major Power Stations

Description of Use Used to assess energy availability and renewable potential for data centre sustainability.

Data Set

Transmission Substations

Description of Use Used to measure proximity to electricity supply, ensuring reliable power access for potential data centre sites.

Data Set

Challenge Entries

Data Centres: A Cornerstone of Australia's AI Future

How can we analyse Australia's infrastructure, energy, and geographic data to select locations and operational strategies that will position Australia as the Asia-Pacific's leading AI and cloud computing hub?

#Data-centres-for-2050

Eligibility: Open to all. Teams should use at least one government dataset in their solution, with preference for creative combinations across different data types (infrastructure, energy, telecommunications, geographic, climate, economic, or planning data). Proposals should include clear methodologies for data integration, analysis algorithms, and implementation planning with consideration of real-world deployment challenges

Go to Challenge | 14 teams have entered this challenge.

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