Top Indian Power infrastructure company Techno Electric and Engineering Company (TEECL) has announced to invest $1 billion (about Rs 7,310 crore) in setting up data centres across key Indian cities.
The new planned data centres will be developed on the back of green energy. The Kolkata-based company has so far completed over 400 engineering procurement and construction (EPC) projects.
“We will be leveraging our renewable energy assets across the country to ensure these data centre projects are 100% powered by renewable energy and remain carbon-neutral. With this objective, we have finalised a plan to develop 250 MW of data centres across India over the next five years,” company whole-time director Ankit Saraiya said.
Among the new cities where the company plans new data centres include Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Hyderabad, Pune, National Capital Region (NCR), Chennai and Kolkata.
For its first project, which is coming up in Chennai, the company has acquired a four-acre land parcel from the Tamil Nadu government at SIPCOT IT Park in the city's southern suburb of Siruseri.
TEECL plans investment to the tune of Rs 1,200 crore to develop this data centre with a total load capacity of 45-60 MW, and preliminary site activities for this development have started.
The second project will be rolled out in Kolkata, which will also be of almost the same size as that of the Chennai data centre and will be developed on nearly five acres with an investment of about Rs 1,200 crore.
“Both Chennai and Kolkata data centre projects will comprise around $340 million or one-third of the total planned $1 billion investment,” said Saraiya. “We are a debt-free company with over Rs 800 crore of cash reserves. We generate around Rs 200-250 crore of revenues through our EPC business year-on-year. We are well-funded internally to build these projects,” Saraiya said.
The company may opt for leverage 60-40 with debt-equity composition, and it is also open to divesting equity in these projects. According to TEECL, the Chennai project will be 100 % carbon-neutral as the company has 111 MW of wind energy assets in Tamil Nadu that will be used to fuel the data centre there. The company has also acquired two 10 MW biomass energy plants in Kolkata that will be feeding power to the data centre in the eastern city and this will also be 100% renewable.
TEECL's third data centre, in Hyderabad, will be developed over a larger parcel of land than in Chennai and Kolkata. It may go up to 50 MW and will be completely powered by the company's captive solar power infrastructure in Hyderabad. The company's fourth project would be in either Navi Mumbai, Pune or Noida. It has engaged a consultant to study and survey these markets.
Data centres in India are emerging as the most attractive growth opportunity for global institutional investors and leading developers. Investments are flowing into the data centre markets, with multiple new markets being created simultaneously, along with the rapid development of campus sizes found in the most established global cities.
