Adani group plans 1000 MW data centre capacity in 10 years

There are two things that the Adani group has demonstrated in the last few years. Firstly, they never think small and secondly, their focus is always on the more futuristic sectors. It is here that their latest plan to set up 1000 MW (megawatts) of data centre capacity over the next 10 years fits in. Remember, the capacity that Adani is talking about is more than double the entire national capacity of data centres in India currently. Of course, this is over the next 10 years, but that is aggressive enough; or at least it is as aggressive as you can get.

This aggressive data centre foray will be under the group company, AdaniConneX. Over the next 10 years, AdaniConneX is planning to build 1,000 megawatt data centres. As mentioned earlier, the total size of the data centre sector in India today is about 450 MW. So, you can see the kind of dominance that Adani group is targeting in data centres. The group sees tremendous opportunities in this business over the coming decade as it sees the operations of businesses going increasingly on the cloud, with the need for third party data centres.

The Adani group company, AdaniConneX, has also planned out its roll out plans. The data centres will be spread across the metro cities as well as the Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities of India. For instance, in the first phase, AdaniConneX will set up 7 data centres in the metropolitan cities of Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Bengaluru and Pune. Data centre capacity is measured on power consumed. India’s existing 450 MW data centre capacity is valued at $11 billion, so the full AdaniConneX capacity should be valued closer to $24.50 billion.

In terms of the rollout plan for AdaniConneX, the first seven data centres across the six metros will have a capacity of 450 MW, or equal to the national capacity today. AdaniConneX will complete the first phase in the first 3 years. In the second phase, AdaniConneX will set up 550 MW of data centre capacity spread largely across the tier-2 and tier-3 towns. The data centre robustness also depends on the undersea cable and as of now Mumbai and Chennai will be connected to this undersea cable network.

The ecosystem is also nearly in place. For instance, to begin with, the government has granted digital infrastructure status to data centres. That would come with the concomitant benefits that other infrastructure projects come with. In addition, a total of 7 states have already come up with a data centre policy and more are expected to join the fray soon. The type of data centre infrastructure that AdaniConneX is envisaging would be perfectly suited to make India a global digital hub where data from other countries can be hosted locally.

For now, the Adani group has aggressive plans in the offing. For instance, in February 2021, Adani Enterprises had inked a 50-50 joint venture agreement with the US-based EdgeConneX to set up data centres in India. They would bring in the best practices in terms of design and implementation. Needless to say, data centres is big business and can position as a knowledge hub that hosts critical data for global companies at its centres. That would be a real example of India dominating the digital ecosystem globally.