South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust has installed two external modular data centres in a £1.4 million programme aimed at reducing energy use and improving the reliability of its digital infrastructure.
The project was delivered by Innovate Healthcare Services, a subsidiary of the Trust, working with DataCentre UK and Schneider Electric. The modular sites replace aging server rooms and introduce a consolidated environment with modern racks, cooling, power distribution and battery backup systems.
Paul Almond, Managing Director at DataCentre UK, said the company integrated Schneider Electric’s prefabricated and configurable data-centre components into the design. “These solutions are pre-engineered, configurable and scalable encompassing racks, power, cooling and management systems,” he noted. “Innovate and SWFT trusted our design and our selection of products and approved us to proceed with the build-out.”
The Trust expects the new facilities to deliver substantial energy savings compared with its previous server rooms. Mike Conlon, Associate Director of Technology Services at Innovate Healthcare Services, said sustainability was a central driver for the investment. “Conservatively, we are now using 60% less electricity on the same amount of IT load, based on the previous server room implementation, and the system has been designed with an expected annualised PUE of 1.2,” he added.
The shift comes as hospitals rely more heavily on digital platforms for patient care, imaging, records management and operational planning. Moving from dispersed server rooms to purpose-built data-centre infrastructure is intended to improve resilience and support future expansion of digital services while reducing energy consumption.
There is greater pressure from the Government to reduce carbon emissions across the board. While many NHS trusts have already been told they will gain access to solar panels from Great British Energy, the less electricity they waste, the less electricity they actually need to generate. That’s why efficiency projects will also be key to reducing the carbon emissions of the NHS.
All these schemes should also help reduce the cost of electricity for the NHS, which already accounts for the largest single public sector energy bill in the UK. This project with South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust should go some way to making a dent into this specific trust’s energy costs, while a year-round maintenance and services agreement has been put in place to support uptime and ensure the equipment is operated in line with manufacturer standards.
With both modular facilities now operational, the Trust says it has a platform that can be scaled as demand for digital services increases, alongside ongoing monitoring to track performance and efficiency.
