Data centre power demand in Malaysia to increase 10-fold

Malaysia's TNB has received supply applications for 11,000MW of power for new data centres.

According to a report in The New Straits Times (NST), Malaysia's Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) has received 74 supply applications from data centre customers.

These add up to a maximum demand of over 11GW (11,000MW). That's 40.6% of Peninsular Malaysia's installed capacity or slightly less than Singapore's total capacity of 12.9GW.

Just for data centres.

Startling demand

Of course, TNB itself noted that not all projects are expected to be implemented. A more realistic potential maximum demand of 5GW by 2035 was suggested.

But that's incredible growth when you consider that all the operational data centres in Malaysia consume just 0.28GW (280MW) today, based on data from DC Byte.

Last month, I wrote that Johor is the fastest-growing data centre market in Southeast Asia with 1.6GW of total supply. (Read: https://lnkd.in/g_wMxZvW)

And it's hardly the only location in Malaysia with data centres being built. This begs the question: Can Malaysia produce enough green power for its white-hot data centre sector?

Also, can its grid cope?

Turning on the solar

I was alerted to the NST report by TOH Wee Khiang, who wondered how much land Malaysia would need to power 5GW of power for data centres using solar.

He did some back-of-the-envelope number crunching:

• Assuming an average capacity factor of ~15%.
• Ignoring land for energy storage systems (ESS).
• Need for 24/7 power to power the data centres.

It worked out to 33GWp, or about 165 sq km of surface area - solar panels can be installed on land, on reservoirs, and on buildings.

𝘁𝗹𝗱𝗿; Malaysia can afford the land, but it's no chump change considering it's just for data centres.

Read his post here: https://lnkd.in/gFFpt9dh

A looming power crisis?

Driven by AI and digitalisation, new data centres are being built faster than ever before. Despite their colossal power demand, modern societies need them.

Can we sustainably power the next generation of larger data centres though? And more immediately, can our existing power infrastructure cope?

🔸I wrote last week about a temporary freeze in the provisioning of additional power for data centres in at least two locations in Singapore. (Read: https://lnkd.in/gTWdtxBZ)

🔸I've also heard of some data centre providers in Malaysia having difficulty accessing the power they need due to infrastructure constraints.

With the transition to electric vehicles and the intermittency of most sustainable power, one thing is clear: Every nation must invest far more into its power infrastructure.