IT Ministry Focuses On Ensuring Power Availability For Data Centres Amid AI Boom In India

The Information Technology (IT) Ministry is currently collaborating with the power, new and renewable energy ministries, as well as other relevant bodies, to develop a strategy that guarantees sufficient power supply for the increasing number of data centres in India, Indian Express reported.

"Today, the biggest question is the availability of power… As we adopt AI more and more, do we have enough power supply to power that – otherwise, where do you make sure that this power supply comes up in a way that we are able to address this issue," IT Secretary S Krishnan said.

The importance of his remarks is underscored by the enormous energy demands of data centres, which are being constructed globally by large tech corporations due to the remarkable rise of AI solutions that depend on these facilities for computational power.

The International Energy Agency predicts that electricity consumption by data centres could potentially double by 2026. This makes the goal for businesses to achieve net zero or carbon negative status by 2030 increasingly difficult to reach.

According to a report by S&P Global in September, India presently has a leased data centre capacity between 1-3 GW, which is the most among other developing markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. In India, the establishment of one MW of data centre capacity costs between Rs 60-70 crore.

Energy usage and associated infrastructure expenses are significant components of a data centre's capital and operational costs. CareEdge Ratings reports that 40 per cent of the capital expenditure for these facilities is allocated to electrical systems, while 65 per cent of the operational cost is due to electricity consumption.

During a National Committee on Transmission (NCT) meeting in October, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) deliberated over the expected increase in electricity demand from data centers. Ghanshyam Prasad, the chairperson of the CEA, instructed the Power Data Management and Load Forecasting Division to analyse the load pattern of these data centers.