India, July 29 -- The power ministry expects AI data centres to guzzle 26.3 gigawatts (GWs) of power by fiscal year 2031-32 (FY32).

In a written reply before the Parliament, minister of state (MoS) for power, Shripad Naik, said that this additional data centre load will primarily be served by renewable energy capacity. Overall, peak electricity demand is expected to cross 388 GWs by March 2032.

". An additional load of 26.3 GW from artificial intelligence (AI) data centres is projected by 2031-32, which is expected to be integrated into the grid and primarily served by renewable energy capacity," said Naik.

The latest data is almost 2X the government's last projection in March this year. At the time, the Centre estimated that electrici...