Amour Computer Facility

Full design and Project Management services  for a new 56 rack enhanced Tier 2 facility in an existing building in Altens, Aberdeen.

The client brief was to design a computer facility capable of accommodating as many racks, of a given size, that the area could accommodate. Initially, an options study was carried out. This report covered the following aspects:

• quantity of racks that could be accommodated in the 2 different rooms that were considered for development
• associated cooling requirements based on n+1
• associated UPS requirements based on n+1
• power requirements including distribution
• generator back up and increase of load options
• increased power supply requirements
• cost estimates for each option
• flexibility for expansion options

This allowed the client to consider which option best suited their business model and the option that was selected was to develop fully the larger room that could accommodate 56 racks but to design it in such a way that the second, 36 rack room, could also be developed in the future. This required space allocation for a second UPS and the associated mechanical plant located externally.

The main switchboard had to be designed to allow a portable stand-by generator set to be connected during the time that the site stand-by generator set was isolated for maintenance, so that a power failure at this time would not result in loss of power feeding the UPS and the cooling plant. In addition the design had to allow a second fixed stand-by generator set to be added while still maintaining the facility to temporarily connect the portable set during maintenance. Careful selection of the generator ensured that a second synchronised generator set could be added in the future.

Duties included:

• project management
• contract negotiation
• cost control
• design and specification of 280kVA UPS
• gas suppression (FM200)
• leak detection
• power distribution
• cable, power and discrimination calculations