en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) jointly released the draft Digital Infrastructure Bill on July 1, inviting public and industry feedback until July 22. Once passed, the bill will, for the first time, impose legally binding sustainability requirements on major data center operators in Singapore.
The draft introduces two new licensing regimes: one focusing on the security and business continuity of "Facilities of Digital Infrastructure" (FDI) services, and another aimed at comprehensively enhancing and enforcing energy and resource efficiency standards for data centers. This marks a shift from voluntary guidelines, such as the previously released Green Data Centre Roadmap and Green Mark standards, to statutory requirements in Singapore's regulation of digital infrastructure.
Under the draft, data centers with a critical load (IT equipment load) of 3 megawatts (MW) or more must apply for a new Data Center (DC) license. The IMDA will assess applications with a focus on energy efficiency, water efficiency, and energy source characteristics, including the proportion of renewable energy used or greenhouse gas emission levels. Cloud service providers with a critical load exceeding 10 MW, or earning at least S$100 million (approximately US$77.2 million) annually from Singapore users, must apply for a Facilities of Digital Infrastructure (FDI) license and implement security and business continuity plans, reporting cybersecurity incidents or service disruptions to the IMDA.
MDDI and IMDA stated that the bill will complement, rather than replace, the 2024 amendments to the Cybersecurity Act. The new bill aims to fill regulatory gaps in operational resilience, such as physical security and business continuity. The IMDA will serve as the competent authority, responsible for issuing, suspending, or revoking licenses, publishing codes of practice, and imposing fines for non-compliance. Specific technical indicators, such as Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) thresholds, will be developed separately through further consultations with operators after the bill is passed, in the form of subsidiary legislation and codes of practice.
Data centers are one of the fastest-growing energy consumption sectors in Singapore. As a country with limited land area and scarce land resources, Singapore hosts the largest data center market in Asia. Driven by a surge in digital infrastructure investment fueled by artificial intelligence applications, data centers are expected to consume nearly 20% of Singapore's national grid capacity by 2026—a higher share than in any other country globally. Due to sustainability concerns, Singapore imposed a moratorium on new data center projects from 2019 to 2022, subsequently resuming development through a "call-for-application" process conditional on green performance.
