Singapore: SGTech's response to Singapore's data center quota

Although back in 2019,  Singapore introduced a data center moratorium following concerns around energy supplies, in 2022, this moratorium was lifted - with conditions. Part of these conditions was that the country would be more selective over future data center projects. Further details around this have not been released yet, but according to insider knowledge, the country will only allow 60MW of new capacity per year, and further to this, any new facilities will have to have a power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.3.

Some operators, however, have criticized the government for its restrictions, and have inferred it will hold the country back from becoming a global hub for data centers. SGTech, is one of these critics, and its chair, Wong Wai Meng, said that the country is missing out on data center projects. Further to this, he outlined that Amazon, Microsoft, Tencent are likely to look elsewhere as a capacity of 60MW isn't enough to attract big players. He said that in the last two years, Singapore had lost out on 200MW of capacity.

In the five years leading up to the moratorium, Singapore had significantly expanded its data center capacity, and an average of 150MW of space was built a year. Now, however, the Singaporean government is preparing a call data center applications to "facilitate the calibrated growth of data centers that possess the best-in-class techniques, technologies and practices for energy efficiency and decarbonization."

According to reports, in response to the government's limited offerings, SGTech is recommending the sector create its own green electricity grid.