Thailand to Make Data Centre Developers Pitch for Power Under New Rules
Thailand's government has approved a draft regulatory framework that will require data centre developers to compete for grid power and water in government-run pitching rounds. The new rules, expected to open for applications in early 2027, follow an investment rush that has seen 57 projects valued a
Thailand’s government has moved to establish minimum standards for data centre operators that would require developers to compete for grid power and water in government-run pitching rounds, according to the committee that oversees the sector. The government’s data centre policy committee approved a draft regulatory framework for the sector on Tuesday, which will go to Cabinet for approval next week, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society said in a statement. Applications for projects under the new rules are expected to open in early 2027, according to Danucha Pichayanan, secretary-general of the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC), Thailand’s state planning agency.
The shift follows an investment rush as Thailand positions itself as an alternative digital infrastructure hub alongside established markets including Singapore and Malaysia. The country’s Board of Investment had approved 57 data centre projects valued at about THB 811.4 billion (S$24 billion) as of 31 July, with backers including Google, AWS, NTT Data, STT GDC, and Equinix, according to committee documents reported by Thai business newspaper Thansettakij. “This change in the criteria represents an overhaul of the incentive system,” Danucha said at Government House on Tuesday. “Instead of operators applying directly for electricity, water supplies or BOI incentives, projects would be assessed and selected based on their proposals and the returns they would deliver to the national economy.”
The draft sets minimum requirements for operators in four areas: location, connection to the electricity and water networks, environmental reporting under a code of practice, and economic and social benefits. Under the proposed rules, data centres would be sorted into seven size bands by power use, from under 0.5MW to 200MW and above. Thailand’s digital economy ministry will operate a centralised application service, backed by a national dashboard that tracks approvals across government agencies. The service will pre-screen proposals before passing them to a committee, which will recommend projects based on criteria still to be published by the policy committee.
Investment proposals will initially be accepted in rounds and selected through a pitching process. The committee, which is chaired by deputy prime minister and minister of finance Ekniti Nitithanprapas, also requested that the ministry speed up drafting a dedicated law for the sector. Projects already under construction or recently completed will not see the new rules applied retroactively. Those projects will, however, get about a year to upgrade noise and temperature controls before inspections begin, according to a report in The Nation. The government in September paused development of 49 approved data centre projects which had not yet begun construction, and has yet to provide details on potential resumption of work on those projects.
Power has become the main constraint to growth of the industry in Thailand. NESDC figures prepared for the committee’s first meeting in September counted 35 operating data centres using more than 2.5MW of power. About 50 more projects totalling more than 5.4GW were under construction, and 117 projects seeking more than 29.6GW were awaiting approval. According to the same documents, Thailand’s reserve electrical generating capacity was about 12.1GW as of mid-2026, but the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, the state-owned power utility, predicts that capacity will shrink to about 1.8GW between 2028 and 2034, as an estimated 13GW of generating capacity is retired.
The squeeze follows a flood of large approvals. In May, Thailand cleared US$27 billion in data centre investments led by a US$25 billion TikTok expansion. Earlier in the year, approvals included SC Capital Partners’ SC Zeus project as part of US$3.1 billion in new investments. The data centre committee will consider a separate rule requiring 80 per cent reuse of cooling-tower wastewater on 27 November. The pitching model envisaged by Thailand resembles Singapore’s competitive allocation regime, which seeks to address the high energy and resource intensity of data centres, to enable continued capacity expansion without compromising sustainability.
