How Data Center Companies Are Gearing Up to Meet Energy Demands

Rapid data center expansion is creating significant economic value while also placing new pressure on energy systems in transition, making it essential to balance growth with reliable and sustainable power.

As India aspires to be one of the world’s leading data centre hubs, it has to take strategic steps powered by cost competitiveness and expanding renewable energy base.

The defining moment will be how swiftly power availability and transmission readiness scale with the country’s digital ambition.

“With the right alignment of policy, grid infrastructure and renewable deployment, India can build AI infrastructure that is globally competitive, sustainable and future ready, and position itself at the heart of the next era of digital growth,” said Debasish Mishra, chief growth officer (CGO), Deloitte South Asia.

In the world’s leading data centre market, the United States (US), energy has become a major flashpoint. In US states like Virginia
and Oregon, connection and supply shortfalls have become a handbrake slowing data centre development, while concerns about the impact on energy prices and grid decarbonisation are severely challenging social and regulatory licence.

Asia Pacific can capture the data centre opportunity and avoid these pitfalls by getting energy right as the sector scales rapidly. Data center companies in India are gearing up to meet these demands.

One of the most significant shifts will be the adoption of advanced cooling technologies such as direct-to-chip liquid cooling and immersion cooling, which are essential to manage rising power densities in GPU-intensive environments. Power architecture will also evolve, with higher-capacity electrical systems, modular power distribution, and integration of renewable energy sources to meet sustainability goals. Intelligent energy management systems and improved power usage effectiveness will become key differentiators.

The Hiranandani group backed Yotta, one of India’s leading data center companies, anticipated this shift in energy and capital demands. It has achieved a PUE of <1.4 on air-cooled CPU workloads and <1.2 on direct to chip liquid cooled GPU workloads. This represents a modern, high-efficiency data center design, reflecting a shift to reduce energy overhead for high-performance computing (HPC) and AI.

Sunil Gupta, cofounder, CEO and MD, Yotta Data Services, said “Our infrastructure supports high-density GPU clusters with advanced cooling technologies such as Direct Liquid Cooling and optimized airflow systems. We engineered the hyperscale Tier IV campuses to be AI-ready from day one. Additionally, most of our large sites use closed‑loop systems, so water is reused rather than wasted.”

Water use is also an important sustainability issue and constraint for data centres, particularly given rising pressure on water resources in many regions and the sector’s current reliance on water-intensive cooling technologies.

On the energy side, Gupta emphasized that Yotta treats power as a raw material. Its D1 (Greater Noida) facility operates at 100 per cent green energy on current load, while NM1 (Navi Mumbai) is already at 80 per cent green power on current load, with a clear roadmap toward full renewable alignment.

“We secure our own power distribution licences and long‑term PPAs so that an increasing share of our load is green. From a capex standpoint, we invested early in power, cooling, and GPU infrastructure, which gave us an advantage. We also followed a phased, demand-linked expansion model to ensure scaling while maintaining utilization efficiency,” Gupta explained.

A key element of Yotta’s energy approach is green tariff arrangements through TUCO, a power utility wholly owned by Yotta’s parent company, Hiranandani Group. TUCO sources clean energy generation from diverse sources including hydro and biogas, and provides
Yotta with a packaged energy product which supports the company’s sustainability goals, said Deloitte in its latest report “Powering Asia Pacific’s Data centers Boom”.

India is already positioning itself as a global hotspot for data center investments, with demand projected to grow from 1.3 GW in fiscal 2025 to 4.7–5.7 GW by fiscal 2030. The data center infrastructure is also demanding AI-powered cooling systems which will be impacted to manage thermal loads which help mitigate energy consumption.

“AI workloads significantly increase power demand and to manage this, data centers are adopting high-density cooling systems and resilient power architectures. India’s power landscape is supportive with total generation capacity at 452.69 GW and renewables accounting for more than 46 per cent of installed capacity. As of mid-2025, India has effectively achieved zero power deficit, ensuring reliable supply,” said Sharad Agarwal, CEO, Sify Infinit Spaces Limited.

“Our data centres use substantial energy, so improving efficiency and reducing environmental impact is important. Our largest facility uses close to 60 per cent renewables in its mix. We are also increasingly adopting renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and bioenergy for sustainability,” said Agarwal.

Future datacenter infrastructure will shift from focusing on individual technologies to creating integrated ecosystems. This transition involves closer integration of compute, power, and network systems, designed with dedicated energy plans, extensive fibre corridors, and automation from the outset. Modular construction, prefabricated components, and software-defined infrastructure are expected to become more widespread, allowing operators to quickly expand capacity while maintaining consistency and reliability.

A key emerging area is resource optimization, including water reuse, waste-heat recovery, and intelligent workload placement, which will become increasingly important as global sustainability standards become more rigorous.

“At CtrlS, the focus is on improving long-term energy resilience through renewable sources, storage, and advanced energy management tailored for high-density environments at scale. This reflects a wider industry shift toward building future-ready facilities that are not only bigger or smaller but also more autonomous, intelligent, and seamlessly integrated within their infrastructure ecosystem,” said Anil Nama, CIO, CtrlS Datacenters.

With a significant impact on energy use, capital costs, and thermal management, AI infrastructure also offers a chance to reimagine how digital infrastructure is designed and managed at scale.

At CtrlS, the company has taken a dual approach by focusing on both energy and technology initiatives. “We have established a captive solar farm in Nagpur that provides renewable energy to its Mumbai campus. Additionally, CtrlS has partnered with NTPC Green Energy to develop large-scale renewable capacity to meet future requirements. In terms of infrastructure, investments are being made in AI-ready environments featuring high-density power systems, direct liquid cooling, and network-rich campuses tailored for AI and HPC workloads. This ensures customers can expand their compute capacity efficiently while maintaining sustainability,” Nama added.

India’s expanding renewable energy base and clean power can play a central role in supporting the next phase of data center growth, supported by smarter power sourcing, stronger grid readiness and coordinated policy action to ensure reliable and sustainable energy at scale. Operators are increasingly adopting phased campus expansion strategies, ensuring investments match demand growth while preserving resilience and controlling costs.

Data centres can meet their own growing power needs and contribute to the delivery of bigger, cleaner grids with energy strategies that leverage renewable sources like solar and wind, backed by storage and firming. Doing so will enable sustainable growth, shifting the sector from a potential drag on decarbonisation to an accelerator of it.