Siti added that hotter weather forces cooling systems in data centres to draw far more power.

Zaharin Zulkifli, deputy director for economic statistics and research at the Energy Commission, warned that if the current trend continues, data centres could represent as much as 31 % of peninsular Malaysia’s power demand by 2035.

The country plans to retire its last coal‑fired power plants by 2044 and to add 9 GW of gas‑fired capacity by 2032, economy minister Akmal Nasir told reporters.

However, no new gas‑fired plants are expected to start operating this year or next, so the existing fleet will be ‘optimized’ through the end of 2027, Siti said.

Despite the surge, senior manager Gary Goh of Sprint DC Consulting said Malaysia does not face near‑term power shortages, noting that the demand increase fits within the grid’s planning parameters.