• New Johor data-centre projects must explain their electricity source, with renewable power becoming increasingly important to approval

• JLL estimates the state’s operating, under-construction and planned capacity could rise eightfold to about 7GW


The fact

New data-centre projects in Johor must now explain where their electricity will come from, with renewable power carrying greater weight in the approval process. A state technical committee also reviews each proposal’s power and water demand, local utility limits, development zone and water-use efficiency before deciding whether it can proceed.

Johor has also banned two categories of highly water-intensive facilities that could use up to 50 million litres a day. The state has set a water-use-efficiency threshold below 1.8 and is encouraging alternatives to treated drinking water. ZDATA said its Johor facility uses treated wastewater, while NTT plans to rely on closed-circuit cooling.

JLL estimates that Johor’s operating, under-construction and planned data-centre capacity could rise eightfold to about 7GW. Malaysia’s federal government has said approvals will depend on whether available power and water can also meet the needs of residents and local industries.

The assessment

Johor is moving decisions about power, water and cooling into the project-approval stage. Developers must now explain how a proposed campus will be supplied and cooled before the state decides whether it can proceed, rather than treating those questions as work to settle later in development.

The 7GW pipeline shows how much capacity developers want to build, not how much Johor can yet support. Each project still has to match its proposed load and cooling system with available power and water before construction can advance. For BTW readers, the key question is whether tighter scrutiny will slow the pace of approvals, or simply raise the quality of projects that proceed.

What to watch

Watch for Johor approval decisions that set out each project’s power source, water supply and cooling design. These decisions will indicate which proposals have secured the resources needed to move into construction.