The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has paused licence approvals for new data centre projects while enforcing a five-point inspection checklist for strict monitoring of existing facilities, City Hall announced on Monday.
Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt, alongside deputy governors Wisanu Subsompon and Pornphrom Vikitsreth, revealed the results of a comprehensive city-wide survey undertaken in response to growing public concerns.
The survey identified 43 small-scale data centres housed in commercial buildings, banks and government offices across the capital.
Most have operated for years and consume under two megawatts of electricity each.
Only six standalone data centres were found in Bangkok, with three currently operating and three under construction.
Chadchart emphasised that Bangkok does not host hyperscale data centres that require 200 to 300 megawatts like those found in rural provinces.
Total power consumption by data centres in the capital accounts for less than 3% of Bangkok’s peak electricity demand, while water usage remains lower than that of major shopping malls.
City Hall monitors these operations through building permits, city planning laws and public health regulations, in coordination with the Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA), Metropolitan Waterworks Authority (MWA), the Department of Energy Business, the Department of Industrial Works and the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning.
Under the new five-point checklist, municipal inspectors are actively conducting spot checks covering international building standards, resource usage, environmental and public health impacts, fire safety systems and emergency evacuation drills.
Operational controls mandate monthly wastewater testing, real-time PM2.5 and PM10 air quality monitoring and twice-yearly checks for Legionella bacteria in cooling towers. Temperature variations within a 500-metre radius of facilities are capped at 2°C over a 24-hour period.
New project applications are currently deferred pending clear guidelines and operational definitions from the national Data Center Policy Committee, expected within two weeks.
District officials confirmed that no public nuisance complaints have been filed so far, though residents can report issues around the clock via the BMA's ‘Traffy Fondue’ system.
