India’s Data Centre Surge and Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) :

India’s Data Centre Surge and Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) :

Surge in Electricity Usage in a Digital World:

India’s growth in electricity demand has been roughly flat at about 5% per year for the past two decades. That paradigm is rapidly shifting. More data centres, electric vehicles (EVs), green hydrogen, and 5G/IoT rollouts will drive new consumption of electricity.

Why Data Centres Matter for India? +

The need for data centres rest on:

• Digital India programs and data localisation policies
• Exponential growth in data usage
• A nationwide rollout of 5G enabling IoT and AI platforms

Despite having twice as many internet users as Europe, India’s data centre capacity is only 1.4 GW compared to Europe’s 10 GW.

Taking new data privacy laws and deployment of AI into account, India’s data centre capacity could increase:

• 2–3 x by 2027, and Increased by over 5x by 2030, depending on the intensity of build.

Powering the Data Centre Revolution in AI:

Data centres used for AI are inherently energy-intensive. The rack consumption for AI workloads is 80–150 kW per rack, compared to 15–20 kW per rack for traditional enterprise server workloads.

Consumption worldwide in:

• 2024: 460 TWh
• 2030: More than 1,000 TWh
• 2035: ~1,300 TWh

In China, data centre consumption is increasing by 25% year-on-year, for example, 150MW of consumption per data centre moving to 240MW per data centre in the near future for AI workloads.

 

In China, the increasing demand for data centres could be 25% per year, with overall demand expected to surpass 400 billion kWh by 2025 (~4% of all national energy demand). In Virginia (U.S.), Dominion Energy projects more than 25% growth in demand in five years due to gigawatt scale data centres.

Data CentresOther data centre power consumption growth indicators include:

Global leaders: The U.S. is out in front with 51% of global capacity and operation hubs (data centres) in Texas, Wisconsin, Northern Virginia, Phoenix, Ohio, Pennsylvania, etc.

• Emerging markets: China, Norway, the U.K., Germany, Japan, and Malaysia are ramping up investment in AI infrastructure.

New data centre spots in India –

Latest active data centres include Visakhapatnam (Google) and Jamnagar (Reliance Industries), plus major domestic players (Yotta, AdaniConneX, Sify, CtrlS) are developing data centres in Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.

The government is implementing the “IndiaAI Mission,” and private investment in private data centres and domestic market demand is increasing. The private investment and domestic demand are connected with growing in AI readiness and national commitment to AI.