Data-center law in Singapore

Planning Act 1998, s. 13

Applies to both

A person seeking planning permission, conservation permission or subdivision permission for a development, including a data centre, must apply to the competent authority in the prescribed form.

Before applying for planning permission for a development, the applicant must first appoint an architect or engineer to carry out the duties in section 24A, must appoint a replacement without delay if that qualified person ceases to hold the appointment, and must notify the competent authority of the replacement within 7 days. The competent authority must seek to determine an application within 3 months of receiving it, subject to extension where unavoidable circumstances require.

A developer who, without reasonable excuse, fails to notify the competent authority of a replacement qualified person within 7 days is guilty of an offence.

Source: Full text of law

Electricity Act 2001, s. 6 (Prohibition on Unauthorised Activities Relating to Electricity)

Effective 2003-01-01 · Applies to both

Section 6(1) bars any person from engaging in the generation, transmission or retail of electricity, importing or exporting electricity, providing market support services, or trading in or operating a wholesale electricity market, unless authorised by an electricity licence granted under section 9 or exempted under section 8. Section 6(1A) carves the Energy Market Authority itself out of the licensing requirement for generation, transmission, import, export or wholesale trading.

This reaches a data centre operator that generates its own electricity (for example an on-site cogeneration or backup generation arrangement) or otherwise engages in a licensable activity, though a data centre that only draws electricity as a retail consumer is not itself engaging in a licensable activity under this section. Contravention is a criminal offence under section 6(2).

Section 6 sits in Part III of the Act, which the Act's own commencement note records as having come into operation 1 January 2003 (other than section 21(2) and (3), which does not affect section 6).

Source: Full text of law

Energy Conservation Act 2012, ss. 22, 27, 27A, 27B, 28 and 32

Applies to both

The Minister may, after consultation with the National Environment Agency, declare by order in the Gazette the qualifications by which a corporation becomes a “registrable corporation”, described by industry, by a type of business activity or premises, or by an energy use threshold (s. 22).

A registered corporation must periodically report its energy consumption and production (s. 27), implement and report on an energy management system (s. 27A), conduct energy efficiency opportunities assessments (s. 27B), and submit energy efficiency improvement plans (s. 28) to the Director-General.

The Act does not name a data centre, so a data centre operator is bound only if its premises or business activity meet a Minister-set qualification or energy-use threshold, which the Act does not itself state. Contravening the reporting, energy-management-system, assessment or improvement-plan duty is an offence.

Source: Full text of law

Building Control Act 1989, s. 5

Applies to both

Before building works, including a data centre's construction, may proceed, the developer must apply to the Commissioner of Building Control for approval of the building plans, identifying the qualified person appointed to prepare the plans and, where any geotechnical building works are involved, the geotechnical engineer appointed for those aspects, and for major building works, an accredited checker's certificate that the plans show no inadequacy in the building's key structural elements (s. 5).

The Commissioner may approve the plans with or without conditions, direct their resubmission, or disapprove them. The Act binds the Government, including premises it owns or occupies and premises on which building or engineering-construction work is carried out on its behalf, though the Government cannot be prosecuted for an offence under the Act.

Source: Full text of law

Building Control Act 1989, ss. 22FB, 22FC, 22FD, 22FE and 22FF

Effective 2025-09-30 · Applies to both

Part 3B of the Act requires the owner of a building the Commissioner of Building Control designates a “Type 1 building” to submit a periodic report to the Commissioner on the building's electricity and other energy consumption, including consumption of chilled water supplied to the building's cooling system (s. 22FF).

The energy audits this Part contemplates must be carried out by a mechanical engineer, a registered energy auditor, or another prescribed class of individual (s. 22FB), and the Commissioner registers energy auditors, may cancel or suspend a registration, and keeps a public register of them (ss. 22FC-22FE). The Act does not state which buildings the Commissioner designates Type 1 buildings, so whether a given data centre qualifies is not established here.

The Act binds the Government, including premises it owns or occupies and premises on which building or engineering-construction work is carried out on its behalf. An owner who, without reasonable excuse, fails to submit the periodic report is guilty of an offence.

Source: Full text of law

Carbon Pricing Act 2018, ss. 7, 8, 16, 54 and 59

Effective 2024-01-01 · Applies to private

The person with operational control over a business facility whose reckonable greenhouse-gas emissions reach the first emissions threshold in a year must apply to register as a registered person and to register the facility as a reportable facility, and, if emissions also reach the second emissions threshold, as a taxable facility (s. 7), within a statutory deadline after the trigger year (s. 8).

A carbon tax is charged on the verified reckonable greenhouse-gas emissions of a taxable facility once its total emissions in an emissions year reach the second emissions threshold, calculated as the emissions in metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalence multiplied by the carbon tax rate set out in the Third Schedule (s. 16).

The Act does not name a data centre; a data centre operator's own direct greenhouse-gas emissions, rather than the emissions of its electricity supplier, would need to reach the thresholds the Second Schedule sets, which are not stated in the provisions examined, for these duties to bind it. Failing to apply to register as required by section 7 is an offence, and failing to pay tax specified in a demand note is a separate offence.

Source: Full text of law

Environmental Protection and Management Act 1999, ss. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 67

Applies to both

A person must not occupy or use scheduled premises listed in the First Schedule without the Director-General's written permission (s. 6), which may carry conditions on air pollution control equipment and permitted fuels (s. 7), and works on scheduled premises need a separate permit (s. 8); a change of owner or occupier must be notified within 14 days (s. 9).

Separately, the occupier of any industrial or trade premises must maintain and operate air pollution control equipment in an efficient condition (s. 10), must not emit dark smoke from a chimney, and must not emit air impurities beyond a prescribed standard or, absent one, must use the best practicable means to prevent air pollution.

None of these provisions names a data centre, so a data centre would fall within scope only by carrying on a scheduled trade or industrial process, or by operating fuel-burning or air-pollution-generating equipment such as diesel standby generators. Breach of most of these duties, where no other penalty is expressly provided, carries a fine not exceeding $20,000 on a first conviction and $50,000 on a second or subsequent conviction, plus continuing daily fines (s. 67).

Source: Full text of law