)
Melbourne-based IoT and energy management company X2M Connect (ASX: X2M) has signed a five-year partnership agreement with property developer Resi Ventures to develop integrated data centre and energy infrastructure precincts across regional Australia, targeting what the companies describe as an underserviced segment of the national market.
Under the agreement, X2M's AI-enabled platform will be deployed to manage energy generation, storage, distribution and environmental sensors across the precincts.
The first project under the partnership is expected to be the Miners Rest Renewable Energy Integration Precinct, located 10km north-west of Ballarat in regional Victoria.
The planned precinct will include a data centre with 10 to 100 megawatt capacity, a battery energy storage system of more than 10 megawatts, heavy electric vehicle charging infrastructure, an anaerobic biodigester and connections to regional renewable energy zones.
The project remains subject to customary regulatory and planning approvals, and no construction timeline or capital expenditure figure has been provided.
X2M has connected more than 500,000 devices across 89 enterprise and government customers, while Resi Ventures is an Australian property developer with $900 million in projects across its portfolio.
The partnership builds on an existing relationship between the two companies after X2M announced last month that Resi Ventures had committed to deploying its smart community platform across 1,000 residential lots.
“The Resi Ventures partnership represents a major opportunity to establish a foothold in an emerging infrastructure category," says X2M CEO Mohan Jesudason.
"Data centres have a fundamental energy management problem, and it is only set to grow as demand increases.
"Every megawatt of capacity depends on connecting and optimising a vast number of devices in real time. That is exactly what our platform is designed to do.”
X2M says its technology platform enables seamless connectivity between diverse devices regardless of manufacturer or communication standard.
The platform aggregates data in real time and applies advanced analytics and automated control to optimise energy usage and performance, provide predictive maintenance and facilitates autonomous system responses through users’ AI-driven insights.
“This partnership provides an opportunity to establish compelling data centre-based multiuse precincts in one of the fastest-growing infrastructure sectors globally, while supporting the development of regional communities through advanced digital infrastructure,” says Jesudason.
“This initiative together with X2M’s broader business in the Smart City eco system positions the company well in a number of related verticals with large growth prospects where the company has proven capability.”
Australia's data centre and connectivity infrastructure investment is projected to require up to $135 billion by 2035, according to a report by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and Baringa.
The regional and edge data centre segment, currently valued at $1.2 billion, is projected to grow to $3.6 billion by 2029, representing a four-year compound annual growth rate of 31.6 per cent.
“Regional Australia represents one of the most compelling and underserviced opportunities in the national data centre pipeline, and the tailwinds are only accelerating as AI-driven demand grows," says Anthony Braunthal, co-founder of Resi Ventures.
"Beyond the economics, there is a real socio-economic story here - regional communities deserve the connectivity and jobs that come with this infrastructure.
"In X2M, we have found a world-class platform that can unify energy and data management at industrial scale.
"That combination of purpose-designed infrastructure and proven technology is what gives us genuine confidence in rolling out integrated energy and data precincts with X2M.”
)
