Contingency plan for power plant and cooling failure in data centre
Client: Data centre facilities management company
Location: Surrey, UK
Sectors: Data centres
The Challenge
Being prepared for power plant failure in a data centre
Data centres need constant power and cooling to function. Any type of power plant or cooling failure can cause untold problems for the facilities management companies that run them. So when a leading FM company came to us for a way to mitigate the risk, we knew just what they needed - a robust contingency plan for power failure and cooling that could be implemented quickly and with minimal fuss.
Fact File Heading
The solution
A reliable power failure contingency plan to ensure business as usual
Our engineers first carried out a detailed site survey of the FM's data centres to understand the power and temperature requirements of each site. They then designed bespoke plans so that every site knew what to do in the event of an emergency and had reliable data centre backup power and cooling when they needed it. Each plan for power plant failure included:
• Which type of rental equipment was needed
• Where it would be located - with installation and connection points
How it would be transported
• Methods of operation and roles and responsibilities.
• Important information around risk assessments
So, when a period of particularly hot weather the following summer started to strain the chiller plant at one of the data centres, its contingency plan was quickly put into action. Following a call one Friday evening we delivered, installed and commissioned three 200 kW chillers, a 1 MW heat exchanger and two 500 kVA generators - plus all relevant hoses, cables and fuel tanks. We then plugged it all into the site's chiller plant to support it with supplementary cooling to meet the requirements until the seasonal spike in temperature subsided.
The impact
Ready-to-go contingency plan for plant failure saves the day when needed
Everything was ready to go, so when the temperature rose and the cooling plant couldn't cope, no one needed to get hot under the collar.
The facilities manager made the call and we got straight to work activating according to the plan. This saved considerable time, as everything was already in place - site surveys, installation plan, and who was responsible for what.
With reliable data centre backup power and cooling, everybody knew just what to do, and it was done quickly and efficiently, just as we'd planned.
For solutions to power plant and cooling problems that you can trust, contact Aggreko and keep things up and running so that you can get the job done.