NGD keeps cool with efficiency optimisation

Set in rural South Wales in a vast 75,000 sq metre building, the data centre was built to help meet the growing demand for secure IT facilities. Located in an isolated position, the site is directly connected to the National Grid via a substation less than 1km away which delivers up to 180MVA of power.
Next Generation Data appointed Schneider Electric as its principal technology partner on account of its many years of experience, product range and advanced level of technical expertise. Schneider Electric responded with a holistic, tailored solution to meet the needs of this sophisticated environment.

The main electricity supply is taken at 33kV through medium voltage ring networks and packaged substations, providing resilient dual power trains to the datahalls. In the event of a mains power failure, the system automatically starts a set of diesel generators, which within just fifteen seconds will power the data centre. During this interval, Galaxy UPS units from Schneider Electric bridge the gap between that loss of mains supply and the generators taking up the load, providing up to ten minutes of continuous power.

Power is supplied to the data hall racks through power distribution units (PDUs). Each electrical circuit is monitored and the energy consumption measured so that Next Generation Data’s customers can see exactly where energy is being used.

Energy is also used to maintain the temperature of the data halls to an acceptable level and to dissipate the heat produced by the IT equipment. The environment in the data hall is monitored by dozens of temperature and humidity sensors. The data is then fed into the monitoring and control system which controls the CRAC units, providing a fast and targeted response to any increase in temperature whilst minimising the amount of energy consumed.

This monitoring and control is provided by the Energy Management System (EMS), an innovative system designed, installed and commissioned by Schneider Electric. This system is built using Schneider Electric’s StruxureWare for Data Centres suite of software, which monitors hundreds of thousands of data points, making it one of the world’s largest and most sophisticated data centre management systems.

An overriding benefit of this integrated approach is full visibility of the data centre. The NGD team can see the real time status of the entire data centre’s power and cooling infrastructure through one single screen. Further features include a suite of reporting tools which can used to monitor and analyse the data centre’s performance and provide customer-centric dashboards and reports.

The end result is that NGD is able to find and react to any problems instantly to ensure a smooth, cost-effective operation whilst, in turn, enabling full visibility of energy usage to drastically aid efficiency measures.

Chris Williams at NGD comments: “The modern data centre is a notoriously complex environment and the brief from NGD was by no means a simple one, considering the scale of the project and ambitious growth plans.

“Our approach was a modular one. Through the use of some of our most ground-breaking power and fault-finding equipment, we have been able to ensure the highest degree of continual business performance. Added to this, with the EMS at the heart of the system, NGD is offered full and clear insight into their data halls so that any issues are rectified as quickly as possible while benefiting from full scalability. The outcome is vast savings in terms of eliminating costly downtime and optimising efficiency; paving a sound and secure system as the business expands.

The team at Schneider Electric has surpassed all expectations, working not just as a supplier but an expert support arm, making easy work of what was an extremely challenging brief. We look forward to working in close alignment with the team as we continue to grow the facility.”