🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Power access sets the pace

• Indonesia’s tax holidays and special economic zone (KEK) perks look helpful, but BW Digital, a digital infrastructure developer, locked in a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) effective 2024. That move signals guaranteed grid megawatts matter most 1.
• Nongsa Digital Park in Batam has operators such as Telkom Indonesia and Etisalat (a UAE telecom carrier) 1. GDS (a China-based data center operator) and Oracle are present. Scaling up needs MW availability and clear substation build timelines. It needs firm commitments from PLN and Bright PLN Batam.
• Large AI and data center projects cannot proceed at scale without confirmed green power paths. Options include utility green tariffs, renewable energy certificates (RECs), or extra PPAs.

Network providers can capture Singapore spillover demand

• If Batam proves viable for spillover from Singapore workloads constrained by power limits, telecom carriers and interconnect platforms can sell low-latency routes between the two markets. They can also offer cloud on-ramps (direct links into major cloud providers) and peering services (direct traffic exchange).
• The Nongsa-Changi fiber link between Batam and Singapore delivers sub-2 millisecond latency and over 1.6 petabits per second capacity 2. That enables carrier-neutral internet exchange facilities (not tied to a single telecom provider) and edge cache deployments (local content servers) in Batam that meet Singapore-grade Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
• Setting up early at Nongsa Digital Park to handle traffic between Batam and Singapore can secure first colocation tenants and interconnect revenue as enterprises in the SIJORI (Singapore–Johor–Riau Islands) growth triangle seek reliable connectivity options 2.