Asia Pacific Data Construction Cost Guide 2025

Pritesh Swamy Head, Research & Insights, Data Centre Group, Asia Pacific

ACROSS THE REGION: THE POWER COST OF A 20MW DATA CENTRE (PUE 1.5)

Power is essential for data centres The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that Asia Pacific nations cumulatively account for about 50% of global power generation. The IEA has also reported a 246% increase in power production in Asia Pacific between 2000 and 2022. While the industrial sector remains the largest consumer of power, and rising temperatures have accelerated power demand for cooling requirements, data centres are rapidly increasing their share of power consumption: globally, they are forecast to consume over 1,000 terawatt hours by 2026. The demand for power has outstripped the pace of power generation across most markets, leading to lengthy wait times for new greenfield data centre builds. In many markets, new power connections taking between 18 and 36 months have become the norm, while other markets have paused the allocation process or have timelines that extend between five and seven years. Owing to such challenges, powered land is attracting a significant sales premium. Operators are also starting to explore alternative locations with power availability for their new builds.

The relationship between scale, PUE and cost Power costs, while a pass-through for colocation data centre operators, is a significant component of the operating expenses for end users. The power tariff in Asia Pacific in November 2024 averaged 11.5 cents per kilowatt hour, resulting in an annual power cost of $30.2 million to run a 20 MW IT workload at a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.5. (Note there is a 2.7x difference between the most and least expensive power tariffs across the region.) Per Cushman & Wakefield estimates, a 0.1 reduction in PUE would result in $1.9 million in annual power cost savings. This cost variable has implications for location strategy and data centre networks, particularly as AI heralds increased workload deployment.

Tariff USD (cents)

Annual Power Cost (millions)

Monthly Power Cost $/kW*

Sub-Region

Market

SEA

Singapore

19.19

50.4

138

ANZ

New Zealand (Auckland)

14.94

39.3

108

North Asia

Japan (Tokyo)

14.22

37.4

102

Gr. China

Taiwan (Taipei)

13.81

36.3

99

SEA

Philippines (Metro Manila)

13.59

35.7

98

SEA

Indonesia (Jakarta)

12.23

32.1

88

ANZ

Australia (Sydney)

11.97

31.5

86

SEA

Thailand (Bangkok)

10.48

27.5

75

Gr. China

Chinese Mainland (Shanghai)

10.09

26.5

73

Gr. China

Hong Kong (Kowloon)

9.82

25.8

71

North Asia

South Korea (Seoul)

9.14

24.0

66

SEA

Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur)

7.32

19.2

53

SEA

Vietnam (HCMC)

7.21

18.9

52

“Per Cushman & Wakefield estimates, a 0.1 reduction in PUE would result in $1.9 million in annual power cost savings.”

SEA

India (Mumbai)

6.71

17.6

48

AVERAGE

11.48

30.2

83

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CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD | ASIA PACIFIC - DATA CENTRE CONSTRUCTION COST GUIDE 2025

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