An agency has been established to streamline data center investments in New South Wales, Australia.

The Investment Delivery Authority (IDA), which began accepting Expressions of Interest (EoI) on September 30, promises to support major investment projects in the southeastern Australian state by “cutting red tape and coordinating actions across government.”

“Data centers and technology” is listed as one of the three kinds of projects eligible for support. Projects must also be located within New South Wales, and have an estimated development cost of AU$1 billion (US$660m).

This will be assessed against two criteria: whether the project removes “barriers to major private investment projects that are not primarily residential and that make a significant contribution to the NSW economy”; and whether the project is “commercially feasible, require[s] value-adding interventions and can be assessed quickly.”

This round of submissions will close on October 27.

The IDA also published a hypothetical case study outlining its potential role in a data center project, highlighting specific problems that the agency could assist with, including planning controls and the suitability of water and electricity infrastructure.

The IDA was modelled after the Housing Delivery Authority, which was established late last year to fast-track eligible housing projects through planning and rezoning regulations.

Sydney, the state’s capital, is one of the country’s largest data center markets. In September, project management firm Plan Project Management filed an application for a 1GW facility in the western suburb of Kemps Creek, and data center firm NextDC announced that it was seeking a partner for a joint venture to own, develop, and operate its proposed S4 and S7 data centers.

Australia as a whole is seeing significant growth across its data center sector. In August of this year, the country’s energy market operator, the Australian Energy Market Operator, created a standalone category for data centers in its electricity demand forecasts. This follows its own estimates that data centers’ share of total electricity consumption could jump to between 8-15 percent by 2030, up from 2.2 percent in the 2025 financial year.