China’s data centres will reportedly use more power than South Korea by 2030

Chinese data centers could use more electricity than the entirety of South Korea by 2030 Data centers are being relocated in cheaper regions when latency isn't crucial Flexible grid consumption could also play a role for less important work All the data centers in China are expected to consume a combined 774 TWh of electricity annually by the end of the decade, marking around a 4x increase over their current consumption, as the country continues to drive major AI investments, new reports have claimed.

Wood Mackenzie researchers anticipate China's data centers to represent around 6% of China's total electricity consumption by 2030, a figure that's expected to continue climbing to as much as 17% by 2060.

Data centers aside, a 6% share by 2030 puts the country's total estimated annual electricity consumption at a staggering 12,900 TWh by the end of the decade, highlighting immense pressure on grids to expand.

Data centers could account for 6% of China's consumption by 2030, 17% by 2060 Energy consumption is set to come from two key areas when it comes to artificial intelligence.

Firstly, the predictable inference-related consumption that comes from running models for users and businesses.

But secondly, unpredictable and high spikes will come from training as models become increasingly sophisticated.

The country is also seeing a split in where data centers are being located, in a bid to cope with surging power demand.

Large facilities near cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen offer low-latency connections for immediate performance, but tasks that can accept slightly poorer latency such as training, backup and storage are being moved out of town.

Western and northern regions of China, for example, promise cheaper land, cooler climates and greater access to renewable energy.

"As AI drives sustained growth in computing demand, access to reliable, cost-competitive and lower-carbon electricity will play a growing role in determining where and how new data-centre capacity is developed," research analyst Wanting Zhao wrote.

Energy is a major data center constraint Although analysts predict that data center-related energy consumption will continue to rise for decades, Wood Mackenzie expects data center emissions to peak around 2035, implying that renewable sources could be slightly delayed.

Analysts also project that data centers could become more flexible in terms of how they put pressure on the grid, in a similar way to how latency-tolerant workloads could be moving away from the city.

For example, non-urgent workloads could be scheduled for periods when renewable production is cheaper or other grid demand is lower.