India’s data centre boom is straining its power grid

India’s rapid expansion of data centres is straining its power infrastructure, with Mumbai alone hosting 61 sites serving global firms like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. The city’s grid, already supplying 20 million users, may face a third of its electricity demand from data centres by 2030, as AI and cloud computing surge. Nationwide, India’s 270 data centres currently use 0.5% of its electricity but could rise to 3% by 2030, despite the U.S. handling a larger share with a far bigger grid. Amazon Web Services is investing $12.7 billion in Mumbai and Hyderabad, while Google plans a $15 billion AI data hub in Visakhapatnam. Major Indian firms, including Reliance Industries and Tata Consultancy Services, are also building large-scale facilities. Experts attribute the boom to India’s 800 million internet users and geopolitical shifts, like the Middle East crisis, pushing global companies to diversify their data centre locations. The country’s data centre capacity could grow from 1.5 gigawatts to 13.2GW by 2032, according to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. A single 100MW AI-focused centre consumes as much power as 750,000 Indian households, yet many cities still face power cuts. A parliamentary panel warned that concentrated demand risks destabilizing the grid, which relies heavily on coal. Industry leaders like Sunil Gupta of Yotta Data Services report a surge in inquiries for data centres, with capacity needs ranging from 200 to 500 megawatts. NeevCloud’s Narendra Sen cautioned that AI-driven demand could increase power consumption 20 to 30 times, threatening India’s clean energy transition. The challenge now is expanding power supply to sustain the growth without compromising reliability or sustainability.