India reportedly has potential for 5X data centre capacity expansion

According to a report by Cushman and Wakefield, India has a potential for five times data centre capacity expansion to fuel digital transformation. While the country requires an additional 1.7-3.6 gigawatt data centre capacity over and above the planned development of 2.32 GW (colocation) capacity, the capacity expansion will take the potential of possible data centre capacity to over 5 GW.

India’s colocation data centre capacity stood at 977 MW across the top seven cities. Out of this, around 258 MW was built in 2023 witnessing a 105 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth over the installed capacity in 2022.

India’s current under-construction colocation capacity addition stands at 1.03 GW for 2024-2028, with an additional 1.29 GW being planned, taking the total projected capacity to 2.32 GW by 2028.

The report highlighted this growth is propelled by a confluence of factors, including a significant increase in data consumption fuelled by rising digital penetration and adoption of data-intensive technologies.

Vivek Dahiya, Managing Director and Head Data Centre Advisory Team, Asia Pacific, Cushman & Wakefield, said, “The Indian data centre industry has been witnessing exponential growth over the past few years fuelled by rapid expansion especially post-Covid, in digital penetration levels and adoption of new-age technologies including 5G, cloud computing, IoT, Generative AI.”