Cape Town data centre expansion could consume 34% of city’s electricity

While South Africa’s data centre boom is on the horizon, questions around transparency and sustainability mount.

Daily Maverick Environmental Journalist Tony Carnie reported that four new data centres in the area are set to swallow 34% of the City of Cape Town’s current electricity supply.

Last year, three tech companies revealed plans to expand into the city, and collectively, these four data centres would require 580MW of power

"The cumulative electricity demand of these data centres is equivalent to 34% of Cape Town's current electricity demand.

"It's a pretty big number, and it raises questions about the sustainability of encouraging data centres to locate here,” he said.

Carnie explained that the city already holds 10 data centres whose cumulative electricity demand is relatively modest.

He added that, while there are benefits to the data centres, such as job creation, there has been a lack of transparency.

“When you suddenly have to produce another 34% of electricity and an unknown volume of extra water, that raises big questions about the sustainability of wooing big data centres to relocate here.

“They [CoCT] are saying that, given the fact that our electricity demand has declined over the last two decades, this is quite a welcome addition. But I don’t think that Eskom is completely out of the woods yet.

“If we decide that data centres are the way to go, they then have to be catered for, which requires transparency and planning to avoid a repeat scenario of electricity and water shortages.”