What Went Behind Building Techno Digital's First Carbon-Zero Data Centre?

Tell us about Techno Digital and its parent group's tryst in the power sector

Techno Digital is part of Techno Electric, which has been operating in India’s power sector for over four to five decades. The group has provided EPC services across power generation, transmission, and distribution. To put it in perspective, out of roughly 260 substations owned by Power Grid, nearly 160 have been delivered by us. Similarly, we have executed EPC packages at around 50% of NTPC’s generating plants.

We were also early movers in renewable energy. In 2009, we became one of India’s first independent power producers in renewables, commissioning around 95 MW in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. This was followed by a greenfield expansion of about 112 MW in 2011–12, taking our total renewable capacity to roughly 207 MW by 2013, making us one of the largest renewable IPPs in the country at that time.

What prompted Techno Digital’s entry into the data centre sector?

Data centres caught our attention around 2020 for two reasons. First, they are highly power-intensive industries, much like aluminium smelters or refineries, where we already have deep experience in sourcing, managing, and distributing power. Second, our background in renewable energy meant we understood the regulatory framework and practical challenges around sourcing affordable and reliable green power.

Data centres were clearly a forward-looking sector, with expected annual growth of 15–18%. The combination of power intensity, sustainability requirements, and long-term growth made it a natural extension of our core strengths.

Tell us about your Chennai data centre and its sustainability features

Our first project was a 36 MW data centre in Chennai, of which around 10 MW has been commissioned in the first phase. Sustainability was central to its design. We adopted adiabatic cooling towers, which consume about 75% less water than conventional systems and also significantly reduce power consumption.

As a result, our power usage effectiveness (PUE) is around 1.35, compared with an industry average of about 1.6. This means more power is actually available for IT equipment rather than being lost to overheads. The facility is also USGBC LEED Gold certified, uses sustainable materials, and prioritises locally manufactured inputs.

The real differentiator, however, will emerge as utilisation ramps up—our ability to source renewable power reliably and cost-effectively, leveraging our experience as a renewable energy developer in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

You are also developing a data centre in Noida. How is that different?

The Noida project is being developed jointly with RailTel under a revenue-share model. It will start with 10 MW and is scalable to 50 MW. Our ambition here is to make it India’s first carbon-zero data centre—not merely carbon-neutral.

While achieving carbon zero on day one is difficult due to regulatory and infrastructure constraints, our target is to reach that status by 2027–28, or certainly before 2030. The plan is to source at least 80–90% of power from renewables on a round-the-clock basis, supported by battery energy storage systems combining solar and wind.

How is AI changing data centre design and power requirements?

Until two or three years ago, average rack density was around 6 kW. Today, we are contracting at roughly 10 kW. With AI workloads, rack densities can range from 25 kW to as high as 200–250 kW.

This dramatically increases power density within the same footprint. For example, our Chennai data centre was designed for 36 MW, but with high-density racks, it can support up to 48 MW without expanding real estate. While power requirements increase, efficiency also improves because advanced cooling becomes more localised and targeted. In fact, PUEs for high-density deployments can fall to 1.35 or even close to 1.2 with the right design.

What are the infrastructure challenges facing large-scale data centres?

Take Mumbai as an example. Today, the city’s total transmission and distribution capacity is around 4.5 GW, which may double to 9 GW by 2030. Currently, about 700 MW of India’s data centre capacity is located in Mumbai, consuming roughly 400–500 MW.

By 2030, if national data centre capacity reaches 4.5 GW, Mumbai alone could host 2.5 GW, with data centres consuming nearly 2 GW—around 25% of the city’s total power capacity. This is not sustainable.

AI data centres of 500 MW or even 1 GW cannot compete with residential and commercial demand in metro cities. This challenge applies equally to Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, and Kolkata. Large-scale data centres must be located where true renewable power can be sourced directly, not merely offset through RECs or accounting mechanisms.

Beyond colocation, what services is Techno Digital adding?

We started with plain-vanilla colocation, but have since expanded into managed services, are exploring private cloud offerings, and are evaluating GPU-as-a-service for AI workloads.

In parallel, our partnership with RailTel includes developing 102 edge data centres across Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. This creates a hub-and-spoke model, where hyperscale facilities in Chennai, Kolkata, and Noida act as hubs connected to edge locations via fibre. This allows us to deliver high-quality digital infrastructure to nearly 70% of India’s population, regardless of location.

What policy challenges does the data centre sector face in India?

I see challenges in two broad areas. First is policy clarity, particularly around data protection. While the DPDP Act exists, the rules are still being framed, creating uncertainty. The industry needs a clear, long-term signal on how India wants to handle data localisation, privacy, and digital sovereignty.

Second is power procurement. While there are multiple mechanisms to source renewable energy, the overall process remains complex and costly. Tariffs alone do not reflect the true cost—there are infrastructure charges, demand charges, and one-time fees. For large data centres, especially those scaling over time, paying full demand charges upfront is simply not viable.

If India wants to build hyperscale and AI-driven data infrastructure, power sourcing must be simpler, more predictable, and globally competitive.