KUALA LUMPUR: The government will announce electricity and water efficiency standards for data centres in September, following the influx of power and water-intensive data centre investments in the country.
Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said the National Investment Council has suggested for Sirim Bhd and the Standards Department to come up with efficiency standards for data centres, especially for electricity and water.
"In September we will announce the standard for electricity and water efficiency for all data centres that operate in the country," he told reporters at the 8th Selangor Asean Business Conference (SABC 2024).
He said the multiplier impact from the data centres investment in the country is substantial.
Although most of the impact is not translated to job opportunities, the minister noted indirect impacts were abundant among which includes highways.
"Google announced its investment of RM9 billion recent but the spillover amounts to about RM15 billion with 20,000 job opportunities. Our advantage is that we have good infrastructure, we have energy and with the National Energy Transition Roadmap, we will get green energy. We also have a lot of companies that need data centres," he added.
Public Investment Bank research in its report recently said, the growth of the data centre industry is expected to see its power needs balloon from 990 megawatts (MW) to 1,4000 MW by 2029, placing enormous strain on the national grid and water supplies.