‘Power infrastructure not yet ready for data center boom’

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines still needs to strengthen its power infrastructure before it can establish itself as a major hub for data center investments, US-based construction engineering firm Black & Veatch said.

While the Philippines has strong potential to attract investments, Black & Veatch senior vice president Jerin Raj highlighted the urgent need to modernize the power grid and expand homegrown energy sources.

“Ultimately, energy security is a vital piece of the energy puzzle when it comes to being ready for data center expansion,” Raj said in an interview with The STAR.

Raj, who also serves as head of Asia-Pacific and India at Black & Veatch, noted that modern artificial intelligence workloads run continuously at extremely high power densities and have “near-zero tolerance” for disruptions.

As new capacity is being developed, he said, close attention must be given to the resilience and performance of the entire power supply chain, along with greater use of digitization and automation to boost reliability.

“In addition, there is a requirement to look at data centers with a holistic infrastructure lens as they are highly dependent on water, fiber connectivity, environmental factors and related risks based on geographic location,” Raj said.

The Data Center Association of the Philippines is targeting around one gigawatt of information technology load capacity for the country by 2029.

To reassure investors amid rising power demand, Energy Secretary Sharon Garin has disclosed that a data center energization policy is scheduled for release this year.

“Data center operators can adapt to many things, but not to uncertainty around power and water availability,” Raj stressed, noting that these requirements are vital to keep facilities operating continuously.

For Black & Veatch, hyperscale developments also depend heavily on early clarity around interconnection timelines, transmission availability and system reliability.

Notably, the biggest infrastructure challenge is not technology itself but the lack of coordination and proper sequencing across the sector, the company emphasized.

“Where projects struggle is when generation, transmission, other essential utilities and demand planning happen in parallel rather than in an integrated way,” Raj said.

“It takes (more) time to develop utility infrastructure versus the speed and pace of erecting a building to house data center technology,” he added.

Earlier, the Data Center Operators of the Philippines said new data centers are targeted for development over the next two years to expand capacity to 473 megawatts from the current 150 MW.