Global turbine shortage slows Malaysia data centre power expansion: Johari
Malaysia's Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani said a global turbine shortage has delayed adding power capacity for data centres. Tenaga Nasional Bhd can provide additional capacity while protecting supply to existing industries, he said, and natural gas, solar, bat
PETALING JAYA (Nov 4): A global turbine shortage has caused some delays in adding power capacity for Malaysia's data centre industry, Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani said on Wednesday (Nov 4). Speaking after Amazon Web Services' Cloud and AI Day here, Johari said Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) could provide additional capacity while protecting electricity supply to existing industries. RTM, which reported his remarks on the turbine shortage, gave no revised timetable or details of any projects affected.
Johari said Malaysia could use natural gas to generate more electricity for data centres, while TNB was pursuing solar, battery storage and hydropower projects. He said 55 of the 117 data centres approved had begun operating, with the rest at various stages of planning and construction.
Developers seeking grid connections in Peninsular Malaysia must submit 10-year forecasts showing how their electricity needs will rise in stages and sign binding electricity supply agreements with TNB, Malay Mail reported on Wednesday, citing a written parliamentary reply from the Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation (Petra). Grid access would be allocated in phases after assessments of each project's power needs and local transmission capacity. Petra projects that data centres will account for 21 per cent of Peninsular Malaysia's electricity consumption by 2030, up from an estimated 7 per cent this year, the report said.
Johari told the Dewan Rakyat on Oct 15 that investors would have to pay for transmission upgrades needed to serve their projects. Once a data centre and its power supply were operational, its operator would also be charged for the full capacity allocated to it, even if it used only part of that capacity, Bernama reported.
In a separate Dewan Rakyat update on Oct 28, Johari said the government had yet to decide on 24 new data centre applications while it assessed whether electricity supply could meet the needs of projects already approved. He said the government would seek TNB's assessment of supply and reserve margins, and state governments would have to confirm sufficient water before a project could be approved, even where land was available. Energy Transition and Water Transformation Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof told the Dewan Rakyat on Oct 27 that the government had approved a minimum 30 per cent renewable energy requirement for data centres and that the Energy Commission was drawing up implementation guidelines.
At Wednesday's AWS event, Johari reiterated a separate minimum 30 per cent local-content requirement for data centre development, covering participation by Malaysian consultants, contractors, engineers and procurement managers, Bernama reported.
