SOUTH AFRICA’S First Green Data Park

For those who take the Gautrain to work; next time you are on the train to Pretoria have a look out the east as you pass Samrand Road.  What you will witness is South Africa’s first green data park with the first phase in operation by the end of the year. Fully developed, the park will support 6000m² of data space which can be hosted, or user-owned, to suit client requirements.

Traditional data centre developments are adversely affected by long construction lead times, difficulty in achieving good build quality and poor efficiency.

This green data centre design addresses these shortcomings.

Build quality and short lead times have been achieved using factory-built modules supplied by Bladeroom UK.  Fully assembled modules are factory tested as a functional data centre prior to shipment.  This ensures a consistent product of a high standard.   

Site work is limited to placement, linking modules, connection of the main electrical supplies and testing, leading to significant reductions in construction lead times.
Traditional data centres can be likened to placing a stove in a fridge with inefficient use made of free cooling. The Bladeroom concept utilises filtered outside and recirculated air, supplemented by adiabatic cooling to achieve ASHRAE conditions (without conventional mechanical cooling), virtually all year round.

However, fully rated mechanical backup cooling is provided to supply top-up cooling on the hottest days, as well as to support recirculation required in the event of a fire alarm condition or dust and smoke in the outside air. The service corridors on either side of the data space serve as hot and cold corridors respectively, creating hot/cold aisle separation and improving overall data centre efficiency. All fans are variable speed drive (VSD) controlled, thereby maximising efficiency, even at low loads.

This results in the game changing PUE of 1.3 or better at Tier 3 at loads as low as 40% of capacity.

A complete Bladeroom data centre consists of 4.5m by 15m modules which are joined together to create a unit 15m wide, with length determined by the data area required.

One or both ends of the data centre is an air-handling plant module including filtering, fans, adiabatic cooling and backup mechanical cooling.  Each element includes redundancy and is concurrently maintainable.

Each Bladeroom is equipped with a power module which includes dual power distribution units (PDU’s). All PDU’s and downstream electrical distribution are factory built and tested prior to shipment and installation. 

The balance of the Bladeroom is made up of data modules, each designed to house up to 30 IT racks, with power density scalable from 1kW to 24kW per rack.

The Bladeroom is fire protected using a gas fire suppression system. An aspirating smoke detector system integrated with the Building Management System (BMS) protects the data centre from smoke damage.

The green data park comprises three free standing Bladeroom data centres. These centres contain three levels of Bladeroom, each with its own energy centre on one end and offices on the other. This offers flexibility for inclusion of hosted space and owned space.  Owned space could be a single Bladeroom level or a complete data centre building.  The flexible energy centre design offers any level of resilience up to Tier 4 per Bladeroom level.

 The data park also includes a unique renewable energy test site, providing a test bed for the development of innovative green technologies.

The first phase of the data park project comprises a ground floor Bladeroom, associated energy centre and offices.

The green data park project is being developed by Megatron Federal with Engineering Services provided by Single Destination Engineering. Flagstone Architectural Services and Consultauri Design are responsible for the architectural and civil/structural services. Members of the professional team have been trained by Bladeroom UK to guarantee the effective and efficient operation of the Bladeroom centre.

Single Destination Engineering are excited to be a part of this leading edge project which is certain to revolutionise data centre development in South Africa.

Single Destination Engineering (PTY) Ltd
Ken Gafner
Cell: +2783 626 0393
29 Galaxy Avenue, Linbro Business Park, Sandton
PO Box 5821 Rivonia 2128
Email: keng@sde.co.za
Email : contactsde@sde.co.za
Website : www.sde.co.za
Tel : +27 11 997 2340
Fax : +27 11 997 2360

Contact details for Megatron Federal:
Megatron Federal div. Ellies (PTY) Ltd
Brandon Harcus
Cell: +2782 709 7335
232 Element Rd, Chloorkop, Gauteng, 1620
Email: brandon@megatronfederal.com
Website: www.megatronfederal.com
Tel: +2711 976 3003
Fax to Email: 086 685 3320