KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 434.5 megawatts were used by 19 data centres nationwide as of last December, says Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz.
The Investment, Trade and Industry Minister stated that this usage comprised about 2.2% of the peninsula's total electricity consumption of 20,066 megawatts.
In a written reply on Wednesday (Feb 26), he noted the presence of medium and high capacity data centres nationwide, based on information from Tenaga Nasional Berhad.
Of the 19 data centres, eight are located in the Klang Valley with a combined capacity of 108 megawatts.
There are 11 projects in Johor with a total capacity of 2,248 megawatts.
Tengku Zafrul responded to Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong (BN-Ayer Hitam), who inquired about the number of data centres operating in Malaysia and their specific megawatt capacities.
Dr Wee also asked about measures taken by the ministry to balance environmental sustainability with the increasing presence of data centres.
In response, Tengku Zafrul mentioned that a guideline on sustainable development for data centres has been implemented.
"The guideline covers Power Usage Effectiveness, Water Usage Effectiveness and Carbon Usage Effectiveness to measure the efficiency of energy and water usage and carbon emissions at data centres," he said.
Adhering to these guidelines is a condition for applications seeking grants under the Digital Ecosystem Acceleration Scheme.
Tengku Zafrul added that the government encourages renewable energy usage in data centres through green technology policies to achieve a 70% renewable energy target by 2050.
Another measure is the implementation of the Corporate Renewable Energy Supply Scheme (CRESS).
"This programme facilitates data centre operators' access to renewable energy sources from third parties," he said.
"This can enable more data centres to utilise renewable energy, reducing operation costs in the long term."
