State's water capacity meets data centre demands, says Air Selangor

The Star

24-06-2025

KUALA LUMPUR: Selangor's water production capacity is sufficient to meet the demands of incoming data centres, says Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Air Selangor).
Air Selangor CEO Adam Saffian Ghazali said data centres in the state are estimated to require about 250 million litres per day (MLD), based on discussions with Invest Selangor Bhd.
The current 34 Air Selangor water treatment plants have a maximum production capacity of 6,300 MLD.
'Their current production is only at 5,300 MLD, so this gives us a 1,000 MLD buffer for data centre operations.
'While these data centres are expected to consume a lot of water, we will look to balance their industrial demand with sustainability measures,' he said during the launch of the Air Selangor Sustainability Report 2024 on Tuesday (June 24).
Adam added that Air Selangor has subsidiaries ready to produce reclaimed or reused water for data centres aiming to meet sustainability goals.
'For reclaimed water, we have Central Water Reclamation Sdn Bhd, owned together with Indah Water Konsortium (IWK) Sdn Bhd, so data centres may use treated effluent from IWK plants.
'Data centres in industrial areas can obtain reused water from our subsidiary Air Lestari Sdn Bhd, which processes treated effluent from nearby factories,' he said at a press conference.
He also revealed that Air Selangor reduced its rate of pipe burst incidents by almost 25% last year, with its pipe burst index dropping from 4.18 cases per 100km in 2023 to 3.25 in 2024.
Adam said that this reduction to an increase in district metering zones (DMZ) in Selangor, with more sensors and command centres set up in pipe burst-prone areas.
'We increased the number of DMZ to 1,900 last year and have further increased it to 2,000 so far this year.
'DMZ works by recording the incoming water usage and billing of consumers in each district every day to form the normal daily standard or average for each district.
'By comparing the data, we can quickly identify if and when a potential massive leakage or pipe burst might occur, allowing us to deploy contractors before it happens,' he said.
Adam said this change has enabled Air Selangor to achieve a non-revenue water (NRW) rate of 27%, equivalent to water savings of 298.36 MLD.
He added that Air Selangor plans to undergo major organisational reform to place the management of all its assets under a single department by August next year, improving the dependability of its water supply for consumers.
'Moving forward, we hope to give a better customer experience by looking at further optimising our processes and procedures so customers are satisfied,' he said.