A Pump is Just a Pump; Until it is 150kW of Racks and a Shrinking Water Table

13 Oct 2026 · Stories from Data Centre World Asia

Grundfos’s Tan Chee Meng on why the quietest component in the hall decides the running cost, and the water question Johor and Batam can’t dodge.

On a data-centre cooling circuit, the cheapest-looking item is quietly one of the most expensive. Tan Chee Meng, Grundfos’s Area Managing Director for Commercial Building Services, South Asia, has heard the assumption a hundred times. “A lot of people think that a pump is just a pump,” he says, and it is the first thing he wants to correct.

As AI pushes rack densities up, the cooling system around them gets bigger, busier and more power-hungry. The pump moving that water sits right in the middle of the operating bill, and most people never look at it twice.

The Part No One Budgets For

“In actual fact, a pump also consumes a lot of energy if deployed wrongly on the selection, sizing and efficiency,” Chee Meng says. “The pump plays a critical role in the application and the OPEX.” The point is not the hardware cost; it is that a mis-sized or badly chosen pump taxes the facility for its entire life. Specify it right and the saving compounds every hour the hall runs.

Where the Shortages Bite

That matters more now because the parts are harder to get. Chee Meng points to shortages in the components that feed CDUs and chiller systems, compressors and large motors; stretched further by the number of fast-track builds chasing the same supply. “The resources are getting lesser,” he says, “so the time is getting longer with all the component sourcing.” The demand is concentrated in three markets he names as moving fastest: Johor in Malaysia, Batam in Indonesia, and Thailand. Power, for now, still comes mostly from the grid, though he sees operators adding wind to meet licensing conditions.

The Water Question APAC Can’t Dodge

The harder issue is water. “That’s huge,” Chee Meng says of the cooling draw. “Should we use fresh water for cooling, or alternatives, for example seawater?” The concern he keeps returning to is not the plant but the community around it: “If we are still using the water for the data centre, we may run out of potable consumption for communities.” In water-stressed parts of Southeast Asia, that is not a sustainability footnote. It is a constraint on whether a site gets built at all.

The Monday Takeaway

Treat pump selection as an OPEX decision, not a bill-of-materials line. The efficiency you specify is paid back every hour the hall runs. And put the water-source question, seawater or reuse, on the design table early, before a water-stressed site decides it for you.

This interview is part of Industrial Gemba’s coverage from Data Centre World Asia. Responses have been edited for length and clarity. Watch the full interview on YouTube.