World News

Data Centre Development: Steps to Ensure Continuous and Sustainable Water Supply

asianwater

Data centres, including large-scale data centres or known as hyperscale data centres, have begun to be developed rapidly due to the development of the digital economy and high technology in line with the development of 5G, AI, cloud storage, bitcoin mining, digital banking or commercial applications and so on. Data centres usually require a large supply of water for the purpose of cooling server systems and data centre electronic equipment. In some situations, water is also used for the purpose of generating energy by some data centres.

The development of data centres in an orderly and sustainable manner by taking into account the decarbonisation aspect in achieving the country’s net zero target, can ensure the country’s economic development and prosperity in the future.

Scale of water supply demand
Data centres generally use several types of cooling systems, most of which use treated water supplies in Malaysia. The demand by data centres received by state water operators is as follows:

  • A total of 79 million litres per day has been requested from the Selangor Water Management until 2032. This amount is equivalent to around 30 Olympic-sized swimming pools; and
  • An application of 440 million litres per day has been received by Ranhill SAJ Sdn Bhd until 2035 in the districts of Johor Bahru, Iskandar Puteri, Sedenak, Kulai/Senai, Pasir Gudang and Pontian. According to Ranhill SAJ, the estimated water demand is expected to reach 614 million litres per day in the same period. The 440 million litres per day is approximately 23% of the water demand when compared to the water demand in the state of Johor in 2023.

The trend of water resource availability is experiencing significant changes due to climate change. Uncertain weather puts pressure on the entire clean water supply operation by operators and therefore, the planning and development of the entire data centre must take into account relevant factors such as:

  • Availability of raw water sources in the development area;
  • Reducing dependence on treated water supply and the feasibility of using alternative water sources; and
  • Availability of water supply system infrastructure and related investments.

Steps to ensure continuous and sustainable water supply
To manage water supply demand between domestic users and data centres, the National Water Services Commission of Malaysia (SPAN) recommends that several policies should be implemented in collaboration with various agencies as follows:

  • The Federal Government should set a policy for operating data centres sustainably, taking into account efficient water use, reducing the impact on the environment and local water catchment areas and resources, prioritising job opportunities for locals and implementing water resource development projects.
  • Set water usage limit regulations for industries or large users including data centres and should coordinate the development of water efficiency plans in their enterprises.
  • The State Government should ensure the adequacy of raw water resources before a data centre development approval is given, especially in areas with high demand.
  • The State of Selangor through the Selangor Water Management Authority (LUAS) has implemented a zero discharge policy and this should be emulated and implemented in other states because this policy encourages prudent water use such as sustainably recycling water for industries such as data centres.
  • The Federal and State Governments need to continue to work together in implementing water resource development projects such as the construction of TAPS (Riverside Water Reservoirs) or barrages to increase the supply of raw water resources sustainably and sustainably.
  • Water supply operators need to make water infrastructure development plans to ensure adequate water supply to all users as well as setting limits on the intake rate of treated water supply by data centres that need to be controlled.
  • Water supply operators need to review existing contingency plans during water supply disruptions and droughts and foster the development of water efficiency plans.

Data centre development is still new in this country but it is growing quite rapidly. Therefore, in addition to the policies and interim measures proposed above, SPAN also proposes several long-term measures or initiatives to improve water efficiency among data centre developers in the next 3 to 5 years, namely:

  • Use of Reclaimed Water: Use reclaimed water, such as treated effluent from sewage treatment plants, for needs other than for food/beverage preparation purposes such as cooling. This can reduce the burden of using treated water..
  • Efficient Cooling Technology: Using more efficient cooling technology to reduce water consumption in the cooling process.
  • Rainwater Harvesting System: Implement a rainwater harvesting system for use in data centre operations. The collected rainwater can be used for various purposes other than food/beverage purposes.
  • Recirculating Water Use: Use a cycle of concentration (COC) system to process and reuse water in data centers to reduce new water use. In Singapore, COC is one of the benchmarks used to regulate data centres.
  • Monitoring and Measurement: Use a monitoring and measurement system to monitor water use in real-time and identify areas where improvements can be made to be more efficient.

With these measures, data centres can reduce water use and improve the effectiveness of their operations. SPAN is currently reviewing all aspects and is in the process of developing mechanisms and setting relevant regulations that will be shared once finalised.