Data Centers: Why Electrical Infrastructure Requires Special Attention

Behind an internet search, a banking transaction, a cloud service, or an artificial intelligence application, there is a physical infrastructure that needs to operate continuously.

Data centers concentrate servers, storage systems, and network equipment that process enormous volumes of information. And all this computing capacity depends on something fundamental: electrical power.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), data centers consumed approximately 415 TWh of electricity in 2024, equivalent to around 1.5% of global electricity consumption. The agency estimates that this consumption could more than double and reach approximately 945 TWh by 2030.

But why do these facilities require so much attention to electrical infrastructure?

Data Centers concentrate large electrical loads

A data center does not use electricity only for its servers.

The infrastructure includes network equipment, storage, UPS systems (uninterruptible power supplies), cooling, connection to the electrical grid, and emergency generation systems.

With the advancement of artificial intelligence, this challenge is increasing. The IEA points out that the adoption of high-performance accelerated servers is increasing the power density of data centers.

This means concentrating a large electrical demand in relatively small spaces — and keeping this infrastructure continuously available.

In Brazil, this expansion has already entered the radar of energy planning. The Energy Research Office (EPE) classifies data centers as large loads whose power demand can directly impact transmission expansion planning.

A power interruption can have significant consequences

For a data center, availability is essential.

A power supply failure can interrupt applications, digital services, and operations that depend on that infrastructure.

The Uptime Institute’s Annual Outage Analysis 2025 showed that 54% of respondents who experienced a significant, serious, or severe outage reported costs exceeding US$100,000, while one in five reported costs above US$1 million.

The most recent data reinforce the importance of power: in its 2026 report, the Uptime Institute continues to identify power-related problems as the leading cause of impactful outages, including failures involving UPS systems, transfer switches, and generators.

For this reason, redundancy, protection, and reliability need to be considered from the design stage of the electrical project.

And where do electrical cables come in?

All this energy needs to reach the equipment.

Depending on the size of the facility, the infrastructure may involve everything from medium-voltage systems for power input and distribution to low-voltage circuits responsible for supplying the different loads.

This makes cable sizing an important part of the project.

Factors such as current, operating voltage, temperature, installation method, circuit grouping, voltage drop, short-circuit capacity, and environmental characteristics need to be evaluated.

In low-voltage applications, solutions such as Induscabos’ Eproflex 90 use flexible copper conductors and HEPR insulation for operation at 90 °C.

For medium-voltage systems, the Epronax Slim 105 uses EPR insulation for operation at 105 °C and has characteristics designed for the demands of power distribution in industrial and infrastructure installations.

Induscabos also offers halogen-free cable lines, as well as control and instrumentation cables, expanding the specification possibilities according to the characteristics of each project.

An increasingly strategic infrastructure

The expansion of data centers is expected to increase the sector’s importance to the electrical system.

In Brazil, studies published by the EPE and the Ministry of Mines and Energy in 2026 already include data centers among the so-called special loads considered in demand projections through 2035.

Globally, the IEA projects that data center electricity consumption will grow by around 15% per year between 2024 and 2030, a rate more than four times higher than the expected growth in electricity consumption across all other sectors combined.

As cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and other digital services advance, therefore, it is not only servers that need to evolve.

The infrastructure responsible for receiving, distributing, protecting, and maintaining the power supply also needs to keep pace with this growth.

In this scenario, properly designed electrical infrastructure becomes a fundamental part of data center reliability.