Liquid cooling becomes Indonesia's main data centre solution in the AI era
Indonesia’s data centre demand is rising sharply in line with the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing, pushing the industry to shift from air-based cooling technology to liquid cooling as the infrastructure solution of the future.
‘All data centres are already heading toward AI data centres. In other words, almost all data centres will change their infrastructure from the air-cooled to the liquid-cooled,’ said Schneider Electric Indonesia’s Business VP Data Centre Ellya Cen during the Media Masterclass titled Liquid Cooling & Next-Gen Data Centre Infrastructure in Jakarta, on Wednesday.
The shift is driven by the surge in computational power demand. The power requirement per server rack continues to rise dramatically with the arrival of the latest generation AI chips which are denser and hotter.
‘What used to be 3 kilowatts has become 120 kilowatts. And this year in Q3 Rubin server will be released, one rack is 600 kilowatts,’ said IDPRO Chairman Hendra Suryakusuma.
The heat surge is what makes conventional air cooling no longer adequate, 70 percent of the heat in data centres originates from the servers, making cooling the entire room an inefficient approach.
‘Liquid cooling is becoming something very important, because the load per rack has already risen dramatically compared to the old days when it might have been only 13 kilowatts; now it’s more than 130 and there will be more,’ Ellya said.
The growth of Indonesia’s data centre industry itself reflects the magnitude of the demand. IDPRO, founded in 2016, previously managed 32 megawatts from 5 members; now it has grown to 21 members with an operational capacity of around 520 megawatts.
Nationally, Indonesia’s total installed capacity has surpassed 600 megawatts and is projected to reach 1.6 gigawatts by the end of 2026. This potential is supported by projections of Indonesia’s internet economy expected to reach $350 billion by 2030, making it the largest in Southeast Asia.
Global investments flows are pushing expansion as well. Indonesia’s stable geopolitical position has drawn many investors to the country, including several major players increasing their investment commitments significantly. IDPRO itself is actively involved in the formation of AI white papers and green data centre standards as part of preparing industry standards in the face of rapid AI-based data centre development ahead.
Amid the rapid growth, Schneider Electric asserted its readiness by acquiring Motivair, the US-based liquid cooling brand that supplies cooling for six of the world’s ten fastest supercomputers.
The company claims 95 percent of hyperscale data centre needs can be fully supplied, from electrical systems, mechanical, software, to liquid cooling, including the availability of locally certified engineers.