Enhancing Strategies for the Sustainability and Deployment of Data Centers in ASEAN

• The ASEAN region is witnessing a significant increase in the number of data centers due to the escalating demand for digital services. This growth is accompanied by a substantial rise in energy consumption, emphasizing the need for sustainability and faster deployment time to market.
• Data centers in ASEAN are facing multiple challenges, including regulatory hurdles, immature technologies, sustainability and deployment issues. There is a critical need for harmonized efficiency standards (PUE) and more sustainability evaluation indicators, such as CUE, WUE, and GUE, across ASEAN countries to ensure a cohesive approach to facilitate the adoption of best practices in data center design and management.
• Noting the emerging high energy demand from data centre in the region due to economic growth and digitalisation, it is important for ASEAN member states to devise strategies, including technologies, policies, and human capacity, as part of the regional energy efficiency efforts towards energy transition.
• To transform towards the next-generation data centers in ASEAN countries, the policy brief recommends the new technology adoption, such as prefabricated data center which includes electrical systems, IT systems, modular data center, high efficiency UPS super ECO mode, and IEC/IEC&DX/liquid cooling technologies with AI-based control.
• Developing ASEAN’s own sustainabity rating standards or certification processes for data centers, and providing incentives and guidance to integrate new technologies are critical for high-quality development.
• ASEAN also needs to enhance collaboration through a regional network, joint initiatives and projects, outreach activities, and regional knowledge hubs on data center.

The development of this policy brief was supported by Huawei through the project “Next Generation Data Center in ASEAN”.