Critical Continuous Power
The Client: Metronode
Critical power for critical data Protecting your business and the information you rely on. Reliable, secure, critical, conditioned power to safeguard personal data.
The Background
Around 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created every day, says IBM, one of the world’s leading technology and consulting corporations. That figure may be unfathomable to most of us, but for data centre specialists like Metronode, this type of big data is big business.
Every online banking transaction, Facebook ‘Like’, YouTube video, online purchase and Instagram photo contribute to the increasing volume and detail of information captured daily by companies across the globe. Coupled with rapid technological advances in areas like medicine, science and meteorology, the value of the enormous data minefield makes sense.
With expertise in next generation data centre design and construction, Metronode currently manages 10,000 square metres of operational data centre facilities throughout Australia. They offer a complete turn-key solution for their clientele that includes large corporations, financial services institutions, government, defense, utilities and IT and telecommunications providers.
The Requirement
Data centres are fast becoming one of the greatest sole consumers of energy. Michael Kalny, Head of Engineering for Metronode’s parent company, Nextgen Group, says that around two per cent of total power produced by Australian power stations goes towards supporting data centres, whilst approximately 50 per cent of all the energy consumed by data centres is to directly power the IT equipment (storage and processing), with the remaining 50 per cent consumed to cool that equipment.
The Solution
“Our new generation data centres are based on a modular build configuration which significantly reduces the build time by more than 60 per cent compared to a traditional, non-modular build. We are now complementing our modular data centre build with a modular supporting power plant based on Caterpillar‘s® Continuous power Module (CPM), which includes a UPS, generator and switchgear within an ISO shipping container for conditioned continuous power.”
“CPM’s fit the bill because they are completely customizable to meet customer and site needs,” says EPSA’s UPS Business Manager, Greg Conrad, who assisted EPSA’s tender application by “adapting our offer to suit Metronode’s site specific conditions and requirements.”
“Retrofitting can be quite expensive and adds weeks to a construction schedule, so with a customised CPM there is a reduction in time of travel, installation costs, and there is also minimal disruption to work due to outages. We also delivered significant cost efficiencies, with lower upfront costs, a lower cost of ownership and a high energy efficiency rating, which was integral to the brief.”
“We use the Cat Flywheel UPS, which has a very high efficiency so our CPM helps contribute to a lower PUE (power usage effectiveness), which is the industry standard metric for measuring total facility energy usage compared to IT equipment energy usage. The UPS is very reliable and doesn’t require much servicing. When it does, Westrac provides a full range of service offerings.”
The Results
The first of its kind built in Australia, each of the three CPM’s built for Metronode’s new Perth facility is a 40 foot ISO shipping container with a 12-hour base fuel system, diesel generator, integrated Flywheel UPS technology, and meets Metronode’s low noise requirement with a quiet 65 dB(A) at 7 metres noise requirement, says Greg Conrad.
“Due to the timeframe and specific customer requirements, each CPM was constructed and rigorously tested in Sydney and then shipped to Perth as a complete unit. The speed to market was just 16 weeks. This is a unique design for us and allows for further expansion.
The guiding principle of this bespoke design was one of scalability where additional modules can be added as required.”
Working in collaboration with EPSA and Cat has enabled the CPM to be designed, developed and built within EPSA’s factory at Ingleburn in NSW, meeting stringent technical requirements to achieve Metronode’s requirements of Uptime Tier III performance, says Michael Kalny.
