A $10 billion data centre proposal for Muswellbrook will be examined as part of the development of a government strategy to manage the booming industry.
Muswellbrook mayor Jeff Drayton and the project's representatives are due to discuss the plan with NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey.
If realised, the project would become one of the largest private investments in the state's history.
A scoping report for the project is being prepared for lodgement with the NSW Department of Planning.
The state government released the NSW Data Centre Consultation Paper in March to help guide the sustainable growth of data centres and AI infrastructure.
It is now working through more than 70 submissions that were received.
"We want to see world-leading digital industries that benefit communities and drive investment in new energy infrastructure," a government spokesman said..
"That's why the NSW government has been consulting extensively over the past few months on our proposed approach to environmental, energy and water efficiency standards for proponents who want to build in our state."
The Muswellbrook data centre would become part of a larger industrial hub to be built on land owned by Malabar Resources between Denman and Muswellbrook.
It is estimated 500 people would be employed during the two-to-three-year construction phase. The finished project could employ up to 200 people in technology and maintenance roles.
A massive two-gigawatt battery would be built alongside the data centre, which would host information from some of the world's largest corporations including Google and Microsoft.
Energy for the project would be supplied from the western [Orana] and northern [New England] renewable energy zones that will pass through substations at Bayswater and Sandy Creek Road.
The project is among several data centre proposals that have emerged in the Hunter in the past year.
AGL is exploring data centre options as part of its Liddell industrial precinct while initial planning documents have been lodged for a data centre on land occupied by the former Kurri aluminium smelter.
A scoping report says the project, which is proposed to be built at Hart Road, Loxford, would employ 500 people during construction and 250 once complete.
The report indicates the project would consist of a two-storey building with a total floor area of 44.2 square metres.
Two substations, a switchyard and an electrical infrastructure building would also be constructed.
The project would use dry air chiller technology for data hall cooling, which eliminates the water consumption associated with conventional evaporative cooling systems.
Dry air chillers are a refrigeration-based technology that reject heat directly to the ambient outdoor air, without the use of water as a cooling medium.
"Unlike evaporative cooling towers, which consume significant volumes of water to dissipate heat through evaporation, dry air chillers use air-cooled condenser coils and fans to expel heat from the refrigerant circuit to the surrounding atmosphere," the scoping report says.
