KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia plans to establish an independent wholesale electricity market to cater to large-scale consumers such as data centres, amid rising power demand driven by investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and digital infrastructure.
Energy Commission Director of Market, Regulatory and Planning Division Rumaize Abdul Halim said the move aims to support the expansion of the data centre industry while ensuring higher electricity costs are not passed on to households or other industrial sectors.
He said the existing "Single Buyer" electricity market, which serves households, factories and commercial premises, would remain unchanged, with a separate market introduced to provide a dedicated power procurement mechanism for large-scale consumers.
Speaking during a panel discussion at the "Driving the AI Era" industry forum hosted by Bursa Malaysia, Rumaize said electricity demand from major corporate consumers had reached a scale that warranted an independent wholesale market.
Both markets would eventually operate under a common framework managed by a unified entity, although details of the coordination and operational arrangements have yet to be announced.
Malaysia has been positioning itself as a regional data centre hub, attracting investments from global technology companies including Oracle and Amazon.
Last week, Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, announced plans to invest US$15 billion (about RM61.12 billion) to expand its data centre and cloud operations in Malaysia.
However, details of the proposed wholesale market, including its trading mechanisms, implementation timeline and relationship with the existing electricity market, have yet to be disclosed.