Investor interest is rising in Southeast Asia as data centre growth accelerates, particularly benefiting power companies. Analysts predict a significant increase in electricity demand driven by the proliferation of data centres, especially those supporting artificial intelligence (AI) processes.
YTL Power has partnered with Chinese data centre operator GDS to develop a 168 MW facility at its green data centre campus in Kulai, Johor. The campus has a total capacity of 500 MW, and YTL Power has secured tech giant Sea as an anchor tenant for its first 48 MW data centre.
Malaysia is poised to become the largest data centre hub in the region, with energy capacity expected to triple. Over 1 gigawatt (GW) of new power supply is anticipated within the next two years, adding to the current installed capacity of less than 400 megawatts (MW), according to market intelligence firm DC Byte.
RHB analysts Jeffrey Tan and Wan Muhammad Ammar Affan express optimism for Malaysian electricity firms Tenaga Nasional (TNB) and YTL Power. TNB's Greenlane Pathway (GLP), introduced in August 2023, streamlines the onboarding process for data centres, reducing implementation time from 36-48 months to just 12 months. The company has received proposals for 21 new data centre projects with a combined energy demand of 3.2 GW.
In Thailand, Gulf Energy is expanding aggressively, with total data centre capacity projected to rise to 8.4 GW by 2025 from 2.7 GW in 2020. The company has signed a multi-year agreement with Google Cloud for sovereign cloud services and is collaborating with Singtel and AIS to construct a new data centre, set to begin operations in 2025.
In Singapore, Sembcorp Industries (SCI) is a key player, supplying one-third of the energy needs for data centres. The company has secured long-term power purchase agreements with major operators, positioning itself to meet the growing demand for green energy.