As AI workloads accelerate globally, data centre demand is entering a new phase of scale and complexity. Industry estimates suggest that data centre energy consumption could more than double in the coming years, driven by rising GPU densities and AI-led compute requirements. At the same time, India is emerging as a key growth market, attracting over $30 billion in announced investments from hyperscalers, supported by the availability of land, power, and a rapidly expanding digital economy.
In this context, infrastructure decisions are shifting—from incremental capacity additions to designing for scale, efficiency, and long-term operability. We spoke recently with Sumati Sahgal, Vice President – Secure Power & Data Centres, Greater India Zone at Schneider Electric, who shares how this shift is reshaping priorities—from early-stage co-creation and full-stack infrastructure thinking to energy efficiency, ecosystem partnerships, and building for what she describes as the “AI factory.”
Some edited excerpts:
You are stepping into this role at a time when AI is rapidly reshaping infrastructure demand. What are your immediate priorities?
The data centre landscape is evolving very quickly. At Schneider, we are not just building for today—we are preparing for what’s coming next. Internally, we refer to this as building for the “AI factory.”
That means ensuring readiness across the entire stack—from power to racks, IT infrastructure, cooling, and even servicing. Design is no longer enough; simulation has become equally important before deployment, because these are high-investment, critical assets where efficiency needs to be understood upfront.
A key priority for us is to engage early with customers. Many of them are still figuring out what they need in this space. Our role is to co-create with them, help them understand platformization, and design for the future.
Broadly, we are focused on three areas—early engagement in design conversations, adapting to rapidly evolving GPU requirements, and ensuring higher uptime with lower inefficiencies through connected systems and a strong servicing layer that enables preemptive maintenance.
In a highly competitive market, where do you see Schneider Electric’s differentiation?
A lot of the market today is solving for individual components—whether it is power, cooling, or racks. Schneider Electric takes a different view. We look at the entire value chain—from grid to chip and chip to chiller.
That gives us the ability to step back and solve for the overall technology problem, rather than just offering point solutions.
We also work very closely with ecosystem partners like NVIDIA. For example, we are involved right from the stage where GPU architectures are being defined, and we develop reference designs that help customers prepare for future data centre requirements.
On the software side, we have ETAP for design and AVEVA for simulation. We have integrated AVEVA with NVIDIA Omniverse, which allows customers to visualize and simulate their data centre infrastructure before they actually build it.
That combination of full-stack capability and early-stage engagement is where we see clear differentiation.
You spoke about partnerships and co-creation. How critical is this model going forward?
It is absolutely critical. No single player can build the entire stack alone. We work closely with ecosystem partners—whether they are IT infrastructure players, panel builders, or technology partners—and together we solve for the complete requirement.
At the same time, co-creation with customers is becoming increasingly important. In many cases, customers are still defining their requirements. So we engage early, run workshops, and help them understand what is coming in the next one to two years.
This ensures they are building for the future, not reacting to it later. That ability to educate, engage early, and co-create solutions is a key differentiator.
Power consumption is becoming a major concern in data centres. How do you see this evolving, and what role do you play?
Energy consumption is expected to more than double, especially with increasing rack densities driven by GPUs. While we bring in products to manage power, efficiency is not just about hardware. It is also about how systems are designed, maintained, and integrated.
For example, we have solutions like Cooling Optimize, which can work across existing environments and help customers improve efficiency. Many customers have reported around 20% reduction in power consumption using such solutions.
Another important shift is scale. Earlier, data centres were being built at much smaller capacities. Today, we are talking about significantly larger builds. Along with that, upgrading existing infrastructure becomes critical.
What we emphasize with customers is not just the cost of building, but the total cost of operations. If you design for efficiency from the start, you save more over the lifecycle of the asset.
You have previously led the Homes and Distribution business. What learnings are you bringing into this role?
The biggest learning for me has been agility and speed. In consumer businesses, preferences change very quickly, and organisations have to adapt at that pace. When I look at the cloud and service provider space today, I see a similar shift—it is moving very fast.
This puts pressure on us as an organisation to respond with equal agility, bring in solutions faster, and align with market expectations.
We are also seeing changes in how infrastructure is built. Traditional timelines are no longer sufficient. Approaches like prefab are becoming important, and we expect them to pick up significantly in India.
Another aspect is getting closer to customer needs. As digital usage grows, edge infrastructure will evolve, and we need to be ready with solutions that address those requirements.
How is Schneider Electric contributing to sustainability and engaging at a policy level?
We actively engage with policymakers and industry bodies to contribute to discussions around grid stability and sustainable infrastructure. For example, initiatives like the Pradhan Mantri Surya Ghar Yojana are driving solar adoption, and we support such efforts by building solutions that integrate solar and other technologies. We also have initiatives like “Green Yodha,” where we encourage individuals to save one unit of energy per day.
In addition, we work with industry forums and contribute to white papers that help shape broader thinking around infrastructure and policy. While we do not drive policy ourselves, we actively participate and provide inputs based on our experience.
India is seeing significant investments in data centres. How do you view this opportunity?
India is attracting a lot of investment because of the availability of land and power, and global players continue to expand here. As this scale increases, the focus will shift towards sustainability and efficiency.
We are already seeing customers move from thinking about just the cost of building to looking at the total cost of operations. Efficient design, better energy utilization, and optimized infrastructure all contribute to long-term value. That is where we see a significant opportunity—to help customers build efficiently and sustainably.
What are your key focus areas for the next 1–2 years?
The cloud and service provider segment will continue to be a major focus, as it is a rapidly evolving space. At the same time, we are also looking at enterprise customers, especially as they expand and explore edge infrastructure. Ecosystem partnerships will remain a priority, because this is not something that can be built in isolation.
From a technology standpoint, we see liquid cooling becoming more prominent as rack densities increase. We are also investing in India—in manufacturing, skilling, and building capabilities that can support this growth.