Sudlows is set to provide the Mechanical and Electrical services for a new data centre facility which will house some of the UK’s most advanced supercomputer systems.

The £18 million contract was awarded to Sudlows by main contractor Russell WHBO, with the facility being constructed as part of a £210 million investment into the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) Hartree National Centre for Digital Innovation. 

Upon completion, the site will be part of the Hartree Centre’s efforts to deliver high performance computing, machine learning and artificial intelligence services, as well as supporting its ambitions for the deployment of the UK’s first exascale supercomputer.

The 33,000 sq ft facility has been designed by Sudlows’ specialist Data Centre Design Team, alongside the teams at Daresbury Laboratory and the Hartree Centre, Russell WBHO, ARUP and Arcadis.    

The facility will be powered by new private HV network, incorporating highly resilient standby power systems, and its engineering systems have been designed with a high degree of controllability to ensure that operation can be optimised by the Client Operational Team, with support as required from Sudlows Facilities Management and Design Teams.

By utilising the latest in liquid cooling technology, the facility can also accommodate systems with a much higher heat flux than that which traditional air cooling would be limited to.  

Zac Potts, Head of Sustainability and Innovation at Sudlows, said, “The Sudlows Team are proud to have been selected as the specialist partner in the delivery of the critical M&E for the prestigious STFC Super Computer Centre Project. The project aligns perfectly with Sudlows’ commitment to sustainability in the delivery of highly specialised critical facilities, and it is particularly exciting to see our expertise support the world class research STFC deliver in areas such as AI and quantum computing.”