December 4, 2023 - ST Telemedia Global Data Centres’ Thailand unit says it has signed a strategic MoU with industrial power company B.Grimm Power to study, design and jointly develop low-carbon energy solutions for the data centre sector.
Under the MoU, STT GDC (Thailand) and B.Grimm Power will collaborate to advance responsible energy usage and explore energy-efficient solutions for data centres, including alternative grid-sourced energy, with a focus on integrating renewable or low-carbon energy sources wherever it’s feasible to do so.
The initiative will also look at designing strategically located green-field power plants to support the growth of Thailand's digital infrastructure.
Electricity consumption is one of the biggest challenges facing the data centre industry. For a start, power is the highest operating cost for data centre operators. Meanwhile, demand for data centres is growing as more businesses and countries undergo digital transformation, which means greater adoption of cloud computing, especially for compute-intensive use cases such as big data analytics and AI.
All of this is driving energy consumption higher at a time when organizations are trying to adopt sustainable energy practices.
According to data from Statista, hyperscale data centre energy demand between 2020 and 2021 increased by 76.23 TWh and 86.58 TWh, respectively. Figures from the International Energy Agency (IEA) report the amount of electricity consumed by data centres globally reached 240-340 TWh (TeraWatt-hours) in 2022.
STT GDC (Thailand) CEO Supparat Sivapetchranat Singhara Na Ayutthaya said that its initiative with B.Grimm will not only seek ways to make data centres more energy-efficient and sustainable, but also enhance Thailand's digital infrastructure competitiveness and boost the country's position as a prominent data centre hub in Southeast Asia.
“Thailand's strategic geographical advantage and forthcoming international connectivity have the potential to accelerate digital growth,” Supparat said in a statement. “This collaboration to improve the power competitiveness of Thailand’s data centre industry within the region will also facilitate the country’s readiness to adopt AI and content platforms.”
