Tough conditions for data centre load testing in Asia

An Asian-based major co-location data centre (DC) network operator was entering the mid-phase of construction of its new data centre in Pune, India.

To ensure the resilience and quality of its equipment, testing and commissioning of its power supply equipment such as generators, UPS system and batteries were essential.

These components play an important role toward the uptime of its operations, but they needed a turnkey load-testing solution that could operate safely and effectively in a volatile and adapting construction environment.

The data centre operator’s customer, which is one of the world’s largest technology companies, had leased out a substantial number of server rooms within the new data centre for its IT infrastructure.

When the time came to discuss potential solution providers, Aggreko were the preferred choice. The customer demanded the best-in-class load-testing services in the industry to ensure that their new equipment was operational to deal with unexpected scenarios and contingencies. This is all the more critical when they are operating in a location where grid infrastructure isn’t in place to offer complete reliability.

With the recommendation and the previous load-testing vendor failing to provide a solution that meets their needs, the customer contacted Aggreko to discuss potential answers to their dilemma.

Responsiveness and flexibility are hallmarks of Aggreko’s service. With a challenging timeline set by the customer’s engineering team to fulfil the project, our team swung into action upon confirmation of the order by deploying three 1000 kVA load banks as part of our turnkey load-testing solution, in just 24 hours.

Varying UPS loads were required for the load-test, so our team used multiple versions on-site to synchronise with the customer’s load-testing requirement.

Load-testing is all about results and our systems provided enhanced load control, along with transient speed instrumentation, real time graph display and full data acquisition and reporting. This offered full visibility, flexibility and control during the course of the operation. This resulted in a complete load test within just three days.

The customer was able to prove its new equipment’s operationality and also the IT infrastructure contingency set-up, ensuring its uptime to its customers. Our full turnkey service - which spanned from logistics deployment, engineering design, on-site operations inclusive of cable laying and decommissioning - optimised the costs and time for the customer as well, without the hassle of dealing with multiple vendors and equipment.

With its previous experience from other commissioning vendors still fresh in their minds, the customer’s facility engineers were impressed with our equipment quality and reliability. This allowed the team to thoroughly stress-test and prove the newly acquired systems resilience against the tight timeline - without compromising on the required stringent stress-testing requirements.

Our focus and approach to safety in terms of operating procedure and equipment also gave the customer a glimpse of how high safety standards can be enforced and rolled out for engineering services in harsh construction environments. This gave them the confidence and assurance to outsource more projects to us while they concentrate on the data centre’s core operations.