Exclusive: Carrier’s Arun Bhatia on powering Asia’s sustainable data centre growth

Data centres face a tough balancing act: rapid growth alongside urgent sustainability demands.

In regions like Southeast Asia, where land, water and energy are constrained, how can operators deliver both?

Arun Bhatia, Executive Managing Director Southeast Asia at Carrier, says the answer lies in smart design and innovative technologies.

"Data centres are going to be intensive in terms of resource usage. Energy and water consumption are significant," he said. "But sustainability cannot just be a cost - it must be the foundation of the design as we build new data centres."

Bhatia explained that roughly 40% of energy in data centres goes into thermal management, a challenge Carrier is tackling head-on. The company's approach combines government regulations and incentives with technological innovation.

"We see two tracks: one is the regulatory push for sustainable investment, and the other is technology," he said.

"Companies like us provide a suite of solutions to optimise energy use and reduce water consumption."

Water use is one of the biggest hurdles. For example, a 30-megawatt data centre typically needs around 90,000 litres of water per hour, the equivalent of supplying 15,000 homes.

To address this, Carrier is experimenting with an unconventional but promising solution - using sea water for cooling.

"Instead of drawing from community water supplies, we're working on a project to use sea water," Bhatia said. "Sea water is cold and abundant, so it improves efficiency and reduces strain on local water resources."

The sea water's salt content, which can cause corrosion, is mitigated by using titanium tubes rather than copper in the cooling systems. "Titanium has less corrosion, so efficiency is not compromised," he added.

At Data Centre World Asia in Singapore, Carrier launched its new Quantum Leap suite of solutions, designed specifically for the demands of modern, high-density data centres.

The suite spans mechanical chillers - from modular units as small as 100 kilowatts to single chillers delivering 10,000 kilowatts - advanced air distribution systems, and cutting-edge liquid cooling tailored for AI workloads.

"With AI and high data processing, traditional cooling methods can't keep up," Bhatia explained. "Our liquid cooling solutions can work alongside or hybrid with air cooling, depending on the customer's needs."

Carrier's offering extends beyond hardware. It includes a digital platform called Abound and Nlyte data centre infrastructure management (DCIM) software called Enlight, providing real-time operational visibility, optimising power and cooling, and reducing downtime.

"All of this is supported by full lifecycle services, including 20-year maintenance plans and predictive analytics via the cloud," Bhatia said. "This holistic approach helps data centres operate efficiently, sustainably, and reliably."

Carrier's commitment to sustainability is further reflected in its $4 billion global investment plan through 2030 focused on intelligent climate and energy solutions.

The company is scaling manufacturing in Asia with 13 factories, expanding lab capabilities, and boosting engineering resources to better tailor solutions to regional needs.

Working closely with hyperscalers and cloud providers, Carrier is co-developing next-generation cooling tailored to AI and machine learning workloads. "Hyperscalers push the boundaries, and they're willing to experiment," Bhatia said. "They take time to collaborate with us, which enables us to develop optimised solutions."

On the digital front, Carrier's chillers come ready to connect from factory to cloud.

"Our command centres in India, Japan and China use AI algorithms to monitor equipment and provide early alerts for maintenance, reducing downtime and unnecessary truck rolls," Bhatia said. "This also helps reduce carbon emissions associated with service visits, supporting scope 3 sustainability targets."

Despite the optimism, Bhatia highlighted challenges.

"The biggest worry is infrastructure availability - power and water to support data centre growth," he said. "We've seen grid constraints in Europe and the US. Southeast Asia must be prudent to avoid the same pitfalls by designing efficient data centres early on."

Regulatory landscapes are evolving rapidly. Singapore leads the way with stringent green data centre standards, challenging operators to achieve Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) below 1.25. Other countries in the region - Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines - are following suit, either through guidance or regulation.

"We're helping customers align with these standards through low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants and digital controls that optimise efficiency despite fluctuating workloads," Bhatia explained.

"AI workloads can cause big swings in demand, so flexibility in systems is critical."

While Southeast Asia is not yet at the level of Europe, Bhatia is confident the region is on a strong sustainability journey. "Singapore is ahead of the curve, and some customers are replicating those standards elsewhere. It's still early days, but momentum is building," he said.

Reflecting on Carrier's role and outlook, Bhatia shared: "We are very excited to be part of this data centre expansion in the region. We're seeing strong bookings, not just for this year but multi-year ahead."

"With Quantum Leap and our digital platforms, the future looks bright for both the industry and Carrier."