India's 520 GW Grid Makes It the Leading Contender to Power Asia's Data Centre Boom

India's 520 GW Grid Makes It the Leading Contender to Power Asia's Data Centre Boom Moody's rates India best positioned to offer renewable energy for data centres in South and Southeast Asia, where power demand is set to quadruple by 2035. India, with the world's third largest renewable energy installed capacity and expanding transmission infrastructure, is the most suited country to offer green energy for data centres in South and Southeast Asia, Moody's Ratings said in a new report. India's power market has over 520 GW of installed capacity as of the end of March 2026. Data centre installed capacity in the country is estimated at around 1.2 GW of IT load, with a broadly similar pipeline under construction or announced.⁷ That matters because Southeast Asia's data centre power demand is set to quadruple from 2.6 GW to 10.7 GW between 2025 and 2035, accounting for 3-4% of peak demand by 2035, up from 1% in 2025, according to Wood Mackenzie. The region needs a power supplier at scale. India's grid, five times larger than any Southeast Asian neighbour's, is the obvious candidate.⁵ The demand numbers are enormous. Power consumption from data centres, electric vehicles, and green industrial parks across Southeast Asia is forecast to grow by more than 100 TWh in the next three to four years, according to the Bain and Standard Chartered green economy report. Meeting the surge will require investments exceeding $200 billion, with more than half expected to flow into data centres as operators seek faster access to power.^2,3 Southeast Asia's power demand from these three sectors is expected to increase threefold to more than 100 TWh by 2030, AsiaOne reported, citing the same Bain and Standard Chartered study. Singapore alone hosts a significant share of the region's existing capacity. But the question is whether Southeast Asian grids can deliver.¹ The execution risk is quantified. Only around 60% of the $540 billion in announced green investments across Southeast Asian power and EV supply chains is considered likely to proceed under current conditions, the report found. Renewable energy projects in countries including Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia have seen 50-60% cancellation rates over the past five years due to regulatory uncertainty, permitting issues, and grid constraints.² Grid bottlenecks are the binding constraint. Bain and Standard Chartered warned that slower grid infrastructure development could impede the demand rollout. Data centres need firm, available power. If the grid cannot deliver it, operators will locate in markets that can. India's 520 GW installed base and expanding transmission network offer exactly that scale.⁶ The green economy valuation frames the prize. Southeast Asia's green economy is currently valued at $290 billion and is projected to expand to $430 billion by 2030. The growth trajectory is steep. But the gap between investment announcements and project completions is widening, not narrowing.² The report estimated an $18 billion annual shortfall in grid investment by 2035. Southeast Asia accounts for nearly 80% of additional global power consumption over the next decade. The region's grid infrastructure was not built for this trajectory. India's was not either, but its starting base is larger and its expansion programme is further advanced.^3,6 Wood Mackenzie described the global power sector as undergoing transformational change, with demand growth set to accelerate from emerging market development, advancing electrification, and the AI-driven data centre boom. The question is whether supply can ramp fast enough. In Southeast Asia, the answer so far is no. In India, Moody's argues, the infrastructure exists to say yes.⁴ What to watch is whether hyperscaler procurement shifts measurably toward India in the next 12 months, and whether the 1.2 GW of Indian data centre capacity under construction reaches commercial operation on schedule. If India converts its grid advantage into contracted data centre load, the power demand that was heading for Southeast Asian grids redirects to Indian interconnectors instead.^7,5