Part 2
Maharashtra: A data hub of rising power cuts
Credits: Gautam Doshi
Renewable energy Thane and Amazon Green cover The isolated future Part 2 of 2← Read Part 1Is renewable an alternative?
“Powered by 100% renewable energy,” proclaims Adani’s website as it plans to build a 1GW data center infrastructure platform by 2030 in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Pune. Most large-scale data centers have promised to transition their power source to renewable energy, thereby not adding to grid stress. Their source options include solar, wind power plants, battery energy storage systems (BESS) and microgrids.
The SLDC’s analysis of Mumbai-Navi Mumbai’s 30 big data centres found that they are ‘largely stable and continuous loads’. By using equipment like UPS systems, modern power electronic interfaces, these data centres operate with near-unity power factor i.e. they do not add significant distortions to the power grid. Reactive power and voltage levels are regulated at the data centres’ transformers via automatic voltage regulators and remote tap changing control, states SLDC. It concludes, “presently Data Centres do not add reactive power to the grid, acting as passive loads designed to protect internal equipment”.
In spite of such encouraging factors, most data centres opt for powering their facilities by the existing high-voltage transmission network (440 kV or 220 kV), rather than connect directly to a solar/ wind plant or a microgrid.
Instead, data centres opt for tying up with green energy companies which feed into the grid via open access.
These green energy companies feed into the existing grid via open access.
Data centres continue to draw their required load from the grid.
“As a data centre’s load is stable 24x7 so for a 100 MW consumption they may opt for a 100 MW solar plant. At times, their entire load is met by solar, but it may drop in early mornings or night to 60 MW or 30 MW respectively. The remaining is fed through the grid,” explains Raman Ladda, Director, Infisol Energy — a solar EPC company.
Data centres are pushing more towards this open-access arrangement for tariff breaks and fulfilling renewable commitments “Our entire centre is powered by renewable energy. We have a 26 MW solar plant in Yavatmal in partnership with Cleanmax. Out of that plant, we get 44 MUs and with an expected carbon reduction of 30,000 tonnes. We don’t stress power utilities as entire consumption is powered by renewable sources,” says Mr Pawar while talking about Equinix MB-3.
When pointed out that the Chandivali site is connected to Tata Power’s Saki and Powai substations respectively, he says, “We generate in Yavatmal and feed to the state grid there and pay for the usage. We cannot have our own grid as it is a capital-intensive”.
Renewable sources have limitations and can never be used to directly power data centres.
“Captive power plants will never be feasible in a data centre premise as land is very expensive. It will always be offsite (i.e. open access). Solar energy will be effectively able to power 30 to 35% of the total load [of the data centre]. However, most hyperscale data centres have a 100% renewable energy (RE) commitment of which 80% is feasible. Standalone solar will not make the cut in energy transition,” explains Mr. Ladda.
Power consumed and pumped back into the grid by a data centre are not co-related.
“A data centre is expected to run at 99.9954% availability with an acceptable down-time of only 21 minutes. Hence, they are powered on a N+N redundancy model – they are fed by two different transmission circles. So, when they opt for renewable power via open access, it is just an accounting mechanism and does not affect their reliability. There is no physical delivery (of renewable power) per se and they meet certain obligations of DISCOMs,” adds Mr. Ladda.
This reality is reflected in the state government’s amended push for more data centres to go green. In its Green Integrated Data Centre parks scheme amended in June 2026, it has increased the number of parks from 3 to 20 and has expanded the geographical scope from Mumbai-Navi Mumbai to across the state. However, it has cut down the earlier requirement of 100% green energy in these data parks to 51%.
Apart from assured power connectivity, subsidies for renewable energy, data centres also receive tariff breaks. As per the June 2026 notification, investment in a Green Integrated Data Centre Park upto ₹30,000 crore will give the entity a concession of ₹1/unit for 10 years and upto ₹60,000 crore will get the same concession for 20 years.
Welcoming the cap on renewable requirements, Mr. Sharma says, “100% renewable energy requirements create instability in the grid. The reduction in the mandate to 51% is to face the operational challenges of the grid, rather than green energy not being able to meet load requirements. The grid is required evacuate green energy from the source to the data centre load and it will be better managed if they (data centre) source 50% from non-conventional sources and 50% from conventional”.
Thane wakes up against Amazon
In a first for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), citizens are opposing the source of local instability: an upcoming 422 MW data centre in Balkum, Thane. With land acquisition and environment clearance completed, the six-story data centre capable of powering 272 MW IT load is now being constructed at the 54.73-acre site.
As per the site assessment, the project will come up in two phases – first two buildings (24 MW, 56 MW IT load respectively) will be powered by one 220 kV substation.
The other four buildings (4x48 MW IT load) will be powered by a separate 440 kV substation. Two rainwater harvesting tanks (325 kilolitres and 650 kilolitres capacity) with 43 groundwater recharge tanks are planned to help cool the installation.
Of the 422 MW power requirement, 5% of the demand will be met by renewable energy by power purchase from solar and wind project developers. A total of 193 DG sets (3000kVA capacity) will be installed for 100% backup for the primary power source – MSETCL.
The cost of backup power
How much fuel does backup power need?
Move the sliders to choose a power load and running time. Compare the estimated fuel consumption at two generator operating conditions.
Power load100 MW
10 MW500 MW
Running time60 minutes
10 minutes180 minutes
80%
Prime load
24,454.55 litres of fuel
100%
Prime load
24,000 litres of fuel
Tank fills use a shared scale of 3,66,818.18 litres, the largest estimate in the table. They show relative fuel use, not tank capacity.
Source: supplied fuel-consumption estimates. Values are available in steps of 10 MW and 10 minutes; actual consumption may vary. Download the data.
The site also has a freshwater requirement of 119 kilolitres/day and the capacity to reuse 6 kilolitres/day via its sewage treatment plant. Surrounded by four hospitals and five schools in the vicinity, at least four residential complexes and the Mumbai–Nashik Highway, Amazon’s proposed site has irked residents who have gathered under the banner ‘Wake Up Thanekars’ (WUT).
Urging Amazon’s data centre to be relocated to an industrial zone, Himani Verma, Member, WUT, spoke to The Hindu on the group’s demands. “Firstly, we already face water cuts, and they are installing such a huge data centre here. While Amazon says it won’t take water supply, we are skeptical. Secondly, we have already been facing power cuts, and this installation will consume a lot of power. Thirdly, the constant humming sound the data centre and its diesel generator will produce will affect residents’ hearing and cause harm to citizens with mental [health] issues,” she said.
She also pointed out, “The pipes of the data centre’s DG sets will be on its roof, which is as high as 27 floors of a residential building. When westerly winds blow in monsoon, its discharge will be towards these buildings”.
According to a paper led by Cambridge researchers, the land surface temperatures around AI data centres rise by an average of 2 degrees Celsius with a peak limit up to 9 degrees C due to the heat dissipation of these AI hyperscalers.
Talking about the Balkum site’s emissions, Dr. Sanjeevani, Vice President, Lokraj Sangathan, said, “They say the temperature rise (between 2-9 degrees) is for 5 km around the installation and not just within its vicinity. Even if they say that they are not going to use water for cooling, the heat has to escape somewhere, and it will in these surroundings”.
The water requirement and its effect on residents was elucidated by Jatin Kothare, Member, WUT. He said, “There is no concrete provision from where the data centre will receive freshwater from Thane municipality. In a joint meeting with Thane’s commissioner, Amazon told us that they will be using recycled water from Thane city’s sewage treatment plants (STP)”.
Highlighting government’s data centre push over citizen needs, Mr. Kothare said, “Government has classified them (data centres) as essential services. Tomorrow, they will receive water, power first while residents may not”. He also highlighted the fire hazard of storing fuel to run 190 DG sets in a residential area.
Despite multiple protests, the construction on-site is underway. WUT members have met Thane municipal authorities, forwarded their concerns to the industries ministry and garnered former Environment minister Aaditya Thackeray. They plan to approach the National Green Tribunal (NGT) if talks fail.
“As a Thane resident myself, I am aware of the issue. The government is working to address the water issue and public perception in this matter. While Mumbai-3 is being developed to house data centres, this is a special case that needs to be relooked to see how it can be isolated from the residential area so that the data centre can co-exist with present infrastructure,” says Mr. Sharma.
Green cover near Data Centres
The rising temperatures, depleting groundwater, and rapid construction across Navi Mumbai for data centres have one common thread directly affecting citizens -- loss of green cover and open spaces. “Thane was known as a city of lakes and now we are compromising our open spaces for these data centres,” says Ms. Verma, adding that none of the schools around the Thane site had a playground. Amazon is not the only player scooping up open spaces in Thane.
The following sequence of satellite images shows the area in and around the Digital Edge data centre in Navi Mumbai. Development of campuses specifically for largescale data centres requires a lot of land which eventually results in loss of green cover, as seen below.
The following sequence of satellite images shows the change in the landscape in and around NTT's upcoming hyperscale data centre: NAV2. NTT has one of the largest footprints of data centres in the MMR.
The isolated future
Clearances continue to be provided at an accelerated pace even as power cuts and load shedding across Maharashtra are part of citizens' foreseeable future as the state government actively pushes to make Maharashtra a 'data hub'. The gap between building a data centre (12-18 months) and the transmission network required to power it (24-36 months) is a major cause of concern shared by the SLDC. The utility urges data centres to phase out their load to allow the power grid to adjust to the additional load.
"We have identified hotspots where data centres are cropping up in Mumbai and Pune regions based on discussions with stakeholders and power applications we have received. As focus goes green, we have planned corridors to connect green energy sources to these areas where data centres are expected to come up,” says Mr. Sharma. He details plans to erect 765 kV substations in Mahape, Ambernath, Apta in Mumbai-3 to cater a demand of 6 GW each and three to four 400 kV substations capable of catering upto 3.5-4 GW each. The projected timeline to complete these substations is three years.
"Our request to data centre [operators] is to come up with load requirements backed with data. Presently, whenever there is a 500 MW or 1 GW requirement placed, there is no data given to us, as to how these projections are made. We expect the data centres to phase out their requirements practically to match what the grid can offer to them at that point,” says Mr. Sharma.
These concerns are not reflected in the Maharashtra government's actions. Since January 2026, three notable MOUs have been signed – Lodha developers (₹1 lakh cr to build data centres of 2.5 GW capacity), AM Intelligence Labs (₹1.14 lakh cr to build 500 MW) and AirTrunk (₹2 lakh cr to build 3 GW) - all contributing to CM Fadnavis’ aim to take the state’s data capacity to 6 GW by 2031.
On the other hand, in August, power to agricultural loads (i.e farms) was restricted to only 8 hours, hampering farming activities, and citizens faced load shedding of 2 MUs due to overloading of transformers. A disturbingly isolated picture unfolds as Maharashtra's power grid expands to assure 24x7 supply to data centre loads while the network powering citizens, farmers and smaller industries is subject to load shedding, power cuts and overloading.
Maharashtra’s data centre story · Part 2 of 2
Credits
Concept, Data Research, and AnalysisSuchitra Karthikeyan and Gautam Doshi
Text and reportingSuchitra Karthikeyan
Graphics, Design, Visualisation, Video reportingGautam Doshi
Video editingShivraj S
Frontend developmentAreena Arora
EditingJohn Xavier
Source: The Hindu · The Hindu Visual Story Team Published: October 27, 2026
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