Government heads requested that agencies compile information about current and future data centers during this week, in a bid to create unified legislation. The country currently has few laws specific to data centers, leading to legal voids like zoning a data center as a "warehouse" right next to a hospital. Much like everywhere else, the country has seen growing complaints about data centers' water and power usage.
After the week is out on September 11, the government expects to take about a month to come up with a regulatory draft, making the pause technically an indeterminate timeframe — though further delays wouldn't benefit either party, as Thailand considers the industry critical to the country’s competitiveness. The catch is that pausing construction isn't enforceable, so companies can elect to plow ahead regardless while the legislation is discussed.
NESDC (National Economic and Social Development Council) secretary-general Danucha Pichayanan is very specific: "we don't have the power to suspend the construction of the 49 data centers" currently under construction . However, when the legislation arrives, it will apply retroactively to ongoing projects, though with an adjustment period for in-progress builds. New builds will naturally need to comply with the legislation from the get-go.
Some companies may elect to soldier on with the belief their buildouts will be in compliance with the reasonably predictable content of the new laws, or betting that they could win future legal challenges — a dynamic that's already in play elsewhere with Project Jupiter. The incoming legislation is expected to cover power consumption (and possibly generation), closed-loop cooling, and water-surplus guarantees, meaning builders already have a fairly good idea of what they'll need to do.
Texas slams on the brakes for 1,800 data centers, power grid requirements are five times higher than peak record demand
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Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/thailand-asks-datacenter-operators-to-suspend-buildouts-until-legal-framework-is-complete-new-legislation-is-supposed-to-create-airtight-requirements-for-large-scale-datacenters#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/membership
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.