Since opening in 1990 this Docklands Data Centre is Europe’s first purpose-built, neutral data centre and has grown to become one of the largest, global data centre providers facilitating the majority of the London Internet Exchange’s (LINX’s) capacity.
This data centre is the only company in the UK that operates an on-site private dual primary substation encompassing a total capacity of 50MVA with cooling and two 132kV power lines directly connected to the National Grid and therefore reducing transmission losses.
With power being such a critical element to thetir business this data centre has built a strong association with Powerhire and have worked together on many occasions. Therefore when the Data Centre contacted Powerhire in late November to help, once again, with the maintenance of one of their engineering transformers they were only too happy to assist.
The data centre has five transformers on their Docklands site, four working permanently and one spare. This redundant transformer is all part of their contingency planning. If any one of their four working transformers incurs a fault at any time they can simply switch over to the spare transformer without any interruption in power. And the faulty transformer can be repaired and returned back to normal duty.
The data centre, who regularly check and service all of their transformers, discovered a fault with one of their transformers; diagnosing it with a “hotspot”, which indicated that it may imminently fail. It was therefore necessary to call upon Powerhire’s expertise in providing them with a temporary transformer in order for them to maintain their spare capacity whilst the defective one was out of service.
Having previously worked together Powerhire were able to understand and adhere to the customer’s stringent security and access requirements and arrived on site and made their way to the substation with the temporary transformer installing it without disruption.
Prior to arriving onsite the Data Centre’s Facilities Management team had isolated the faulty transformer before Powerhire’s engineers installed the temporary one.
Our technicians started by installing temporary HV cable which diverted the data centres site power to the temporary transformer and then they installed temporary LV cable from the temporary transformer to the clients LV switch board. All equipment was neatly positioned before the transformer was commissioned by Powerhire and signed off by the client for use.
Another successful temporary installation with no interruption to the Data Centres operation.
Client Data Centre in Docklands
Project Specifications Supplying temporary transformer for client to repair their own transformer.
