Photo 1. Group photo of the speakers

On 19 June 2024, the ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) in collaboration with Huawei hosted an online event entitled ‘White Paper Presentation: Building Next Generation Data Center Facility in ASEAN’. The objectives of the Webinar are to share key insights from the recently launched White Paper, co-developed by ACE and Huawei.

Photo 2.  Steve Kim, President of Huawei Data Center Facility and Critical Power Business Asia Pacific commenced the Webinar with opening remarks 

The Webinar, commenced with opening remarks from Steve Kim, President of Huawei Data Center Facility and Critical Power Business Asia Pacific (APAC). He expressed his anticipation that this White Paper could help the data centre industry in ASEAN to achieve future-oriented and sustainable development. Huawei committed to continuing working with ACE and the ASEAN Member States (AMS) to develop more details, national policies, and standards to drive the development of the data centre industry in each country.

Photo 3. Dr. Nuki Agya Utama, Executive Director of ACE delivered welcoming remarks

Dr. Nuki Agya Utama, Executive Director of ACE, was also present and delivered welcoming remarks. Dr. Nuki highlighted that with data centres as an emerging sector, this study can act as a basis for its inclusion in the next cycle of the the consideration of AMS. He stated, “Through ACE and Huawei cooperation, the Webinar aims to promote our network for sharing best practices and technological advancements to a more sustainable data centre.”

Photo 4. Rika Safrina, Senior Analyst of MPP at ACE presented highlights and key findings from the White Paper

The White Paper was presented by Rika Safrina, Senior Analyst of the Energy Modelling and Policy Planning (MPP) Department at ACE. Rika shared the overview and highlights of the study. It includes a summary of the current state, trends, drivers of the data center landscape, and its implications for ASEAN aspirations for energy efficiency and climate goals, as well as technical solutions and policy recommendations tailored to different data center markets.

The White Paper presentation was followed by a commentary session from distinguished experts.

Photo 5. Johnny Wang, Senior Solution Director, APAC Digital Power Data Center Facility Solution Sales from Huawei delivered the first commentary of the session

The first commentary was delivered by Johnny Wang, Senior Solution Director, APAC Digital Power Data Center Facility Solution Sales from Huawei. Johnny showcased innovative data center facility solutions from Huawei that are based on the concept of GSSR (Green, Simple, Smart, and Reliable). The presented technologies address basic challenges found in data centres and are aimed at reducing footprint, reducing PUE (power usage effectiveness), and worry-free (temperature prediction) and time-saving features.

Photo 6. Norazrin Rupadi, Assistant Director of Energy Efficiency & Conservation from the Energy Commission Malaysia delivered the second commentary of the session

The second commentary was delivered by Norazrin Rupadi, Assistant Director of Energy Efficiency & Conservation from the Energy Commission Malaysia. In his commentary, Norazrin focused on the policy aspects of spurring green data centres in the region. Drawing lessons from the Malaysian experience, Norazrin outlines different implementation measures taken by the Malaysian government so that the AMS might gain beneficial insights. This includes the types of financial mechanisms that can be deployed by the government to garner investment such as government grants and tax incentives, as well as regulations that require monitoring of energy efficiency in buildings to ensure the effective implementation of green data centres. Norazrin emphasised the importance of harmonising efficiency indicators and benchmarks across the region, for the acceleration of green data centres among AMS.

Photo 7. The Q&A Session was held and moderated by Rio Jon Peter Sitilonga, Senior Research Analyst of Energy Efficiency and Conservation at ACE

Following the commentary session, a Q&A session was held and moderated by Rio Jon Peter Sitilonga, Senior Research Analyst of Energy Efficiency and Conservation (CEE) Department at ACE. Rio first addressed a question to Johnny, regarding the commercial viability of the innovative technologies presented, to accelerate green data centres in ASEAN. Johnny stated that to make the technologies commercially viable, the total cost of ownership was evaluated, comprised of capital expenditure (capex) and operational expenditure (opex). He highlighted that capex savings can be done through the utilisation of auxiliary space, while opex savings involve lowering the PUE index and optimising labor maintenance engineer costs through the utilisation of automatic maintenance rather than manual inspection.

Rio also addressed a question to Norazrin, regarding the role of governments in reducing the risks involved in green data centre investment to help accelerate investment across AMS. Norazrin said that collaboration between the government and financial institutions is crucial, where the government can provide support to energy service companies (ESCOs) through a specific fund as a premium insurance, aimed at improving the viability of the ESCOs. He concluded that to de-risk investments towards energy efficient or green data centres, a database related to the equipment of the data center also needs to be established.

The White Paper is available for access on the ACE website.