ABB has been selected to renovate and expand the electrical infrastructure at two colocation data centres in the Netherlands, both of which are operated by Serverius. The data centres are located in between the cities of Amsterdam and Frankfurt.
Serverius approached ABB as it found its business growing and thus needed its power infrastructure at its Meppel and Dronten data centres to keep up. Due to the rapid growth, however, Serverius had to move quickly and could not afford to wait for a contractor to come in and spend a year upgrading the system. That’s why ABB promised to completely renovate and add capacity to the company’s power infrastructure at both data centres in just six months.
The system that ABB installed is also capable of being expanded further in the future if there’s a business case for it. This gives Serverius the flexibility to expand its business quickly without having to worry about the expensive overhaul of its power infrastructure in the near future. The modular nature of the new infrastructure also meant that Serverius continued to run at full operation during the six month project.
Ciaran Flanagan, head of ABB’s global data centre business, commented, “We are very proud to be working with such a leading data centre provider. We understand that smart data needs smart power and at ABB we focus on delivering the most flexible, reliable and intelligent data center solutions for our customers, ensuring their businesses run efficiently and safely 24 hours a day.”
Central to the new power infrastructure is ABB’s distribution system The central switchgear contains ABB solutions all the way down to the Emax breakers giving Serverius additional visibility into the health of the system.
ABB was able to install power distribution units (PDUs) under the raised floor to deliver additional server power without taking up valuable space in the server room and therefore delivering greater capacity within a confined area and an ability to keep data loads running.
ABB’s SMISSLINE TP system, the world’s first touch-safe busbar system, made this possible. It allows load-free modules and components to be removed and made live without the need for personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect against electrical hazards. The plug-in modules saved on installation time.
The distribution system will be combined with a number of redundant DPA 500 UPS systems, thus optimising the availability of the power supply. One module will be used as an additional ‘safety system’ while the total installed UPS capacity of this 2N+1 solution will equal 1 MW.
Alfred van den Berg, head of technical infrastructure at Serverius, explained: “It was critical for us to invest in a complete electrification solution, which would help us build quickly and guarantee high uptime during the build phase. We utilised ABB’s international know-how for the execution of the entire project right from project management to final delivery.”
Gijs van Gemert, Managing Director at Serverius concluded, “While we started in a barn in 2009, we have now grown into a major data centre player with international visibility and reputation. With customers whose expectations are constantly increasing, we want to continue to meet this demand, now and in the future. By partnering with ABB, we are assured that we will continue to succeed.”
