Confidential Client

This 1992-designed data centre had reached its capacity in power, white floor space and cooling. With hot spots and legacy equipment throughout, the entire power plant needed replacement.

This was a major project to conduct on a live data centre for a premier financial institution. From 2008 to 2013, HH Angus was involved in more than 15 projects on the site. Starting with “bridge” programs to get the data centre through difficult transitions in data, power and cooling deficiencies, to the completion of a 6 MW power upgrade with new power plant and cooling capabilities that allowed for the complete removal of the aged UPS and generator systems. This required hundreds of hours of planning and phased construction, including temporary generators and additional UPSs.

As Prime Consultant for all the projects, HH Angus was responsible for structural, architectural, noise abatement and air emissions subconsultants. We managed the contracts and contractors for the mission critical facility - everything from MOP, design, schedules, budgets and strategies planning were within our role and responsibilities.

The largest single project was $80M in value and involved an expansion with new generators, UPS, batteries and distribution gear. The new facility was then tied into the existing building infrastructure, path by path, until the entire building was brought over to the new infrastructure.

Reconfiguring the rack layouts assisted in optimizing cooling capabilities, upgrading capacity of undersized CRAC units, while at the same time implementing tighter cooling tactics with hot and cold aisle and ducted returns.

We then converted the entire DX building plant to a chilled water system in a 100% loaded 7/24 data centre, providing large savings in capital expense and lower operating costs by over $100,000 per year. The program was incorporated into a roof replacement and CRAC equipment refresh that saved more than $1 million in deferred capital expenses.

HH Angus was deeply involved in supporting the confidential data centre’s strategy over six years. Our roles included Strategic Planning, Feasibility Analysis, Prime Consulting, Procurement, MEP Engineering, and Commissioning services. The projects were many and varied, from condition assessment reports and feasibility studies, to a significant number of small to large projects to meet the challenges of rapidly evolving data centre business needs.