Singapore ranks first globally for power grid efficiency as data centre demand surges

The country records a 0.2% transmission loss rate, the lowest across 107 markets surveyed.

Singapore has emerged as the world's most power-efficient market for data centre operations, recording an ultra-low grid transmission loss rate of just 0.2%, according to Cushman and Wakefield's latest global data centre report.

The figure places Singapore ahead of Texas at 1.2%, Virginia at 1.4%, and the Dakotas and Minneapolis both at 1.6%, making it the global leader across 107 markets assessed in the report.

By contrast, markets such as Nairobi and Lagos recorded loss rates of 24.2%, whilst India came in at 14.2%, São Paulo at 14.0%, and Johor, Singapore's nearest regional neighbour, at 13%.

The metric, new to this edition of the report, measures the percentage of generated power that fails to reach customers through transmission and distribution networks. High loss rates can signal ageing infrastructure, grid congestion, or system stress, all of which carry direct implications for data centre uptime and reliability. Singapore's result reflects a transmission network operating with significant headroom and minimal systemic pressure.

According to a first-quarter 2026 report by CBRE Research, a growing number of neocloud operators are seeking rapid regional expansion to support GPU-intensive AI training and inference workloads, adding new layers of demand on top of traditional hyperscale cloud providers. The report notes that power-rich markets are leading regional growth across Asia Pacific.

The report also points to government-led AI initiatives as a structural demand driver across the region, with Australia's National AI Plan and South Korea's AI for All scheme among several frameworks introduced to stimulate investment and accelerate AI-ready infrastructure development.

Enterprise demand, particularly from financial institutions engaged in quantitative trading and companies in the semiconductor and AI-related industries, continues to provide a stable base of absorption across the region.

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