New Delhi, March 13 The country's demand for electricity from data centers is expected to reach 13.56 gigawatts by 2031-32, Parliament was informed on Friday.
In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Jitin Prasada, said that the total data center capacity in the country has increased from 375 megawatts (MW) in 2020 to around 1,500 MW by 2025.
"The expected electricity demand from the growth of AI and other large-scale data centers is factored into the government's planning process. According to information available with the Ministry of Power, the demand for electricity from data centers is estimated to reach 13.56 GW by 2031-32," Prasada said.
The minister stated that approximately 38,231 Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) have been procured through 14 empanelled service providers and data centers under the AI compute capacity framework to support AI development.
"These are being provided to startups, researchers, academia, and other eligible users at a subsidized average rate of Rs 65 per hour. This is about one-third of the global average cost. These data centers are located across the country, such as Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Noida, and Jamnagar," Prasada said.