Thailand cabinet approves centralised data centre approval rules

Thailand’s cabinet approved new data centre regulations on Tuesday that replace separate agency approvals with a one-stop service centre and a screening committee under the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, supported by a real-time TH-DC Dashboard, after officials said the old system let speculators reserve electricity capacity for resale and left applications overlapping across agencies. Facilities are classified into seven categories by electricity consumption, from below 0.5 megawatts to 200 megawatts and above; those at 20 megawatts or more face stricter rules and must sit in industrial zones, while smaller sites may operate in commercial zones under environmental codes of practice that cap backup generator noise at 70 decibels at the project boundary and limit temperature increases nearby to 1 to 2 degrees Celsius. Applications will be judged not only on investment value but on Thai job creation, skills development, domestic supply chain links and clean energy use, and the Board of Investment said it had approved promotion for 57 data centre projects as of April, of which 17 are operating.