Written By Tim Chiddix

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, about 37 percent of the contiguous United States was in at least a moderate drought as of April 7. The extended drought in many areas has led companies to examine the impact of water use in their data center cooling strategies. As cooling strategies are evaluated, it is important to remember that a reduction in water use at an individual facility does not always result in an aggregate reduction in water use for the regional water supply system. There are many factors that impact the actual water usage consumed by the facility, and understanding those components is important before making any decisions.

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Check out this great video of the ViaWest Brookwood Data Center! Swanson Rink is providing design for this 108,000 square foot new co-location data center located in Hillsboro, Oregon. The facility has a data center raised floor area of 58,000 square feet, and will be designed to easily transition to meet Uptime Institute Tier IV Certification.

Check out the new fly over video of The Mall of San Juan from Taubman

Swanson Rink provided electrical, telecommunications, security, and audio/video engineering services for the new 2-level enclosed retail center in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The project consists of 412,000 square feet of in-line tenant space, two anchor stores totaling 238,000 square feet, and three multi-level parking decks containing a total of 2,350 spaces. This new retail center will be located minutes from the main international airport in San Juan and will become the predominant shopping venue in Puerto Rico.

It will be the first upscale mall on the island and the first and only location in Puerto Rico for both Nordstrom and Saks. The shopping center will include more than 100 specialty stores and restaurants, approximately 60 percent of which are anticipated to be new to the island. The mall is slated to open in late 2014.

Swanson Rink is proud to announce the completion of two new data centers for a national managed service provider giant. Swanson Rink was the engineer for the mechanical and electrical design for both facilities, and has a long-term and successful relationship with the client. These projects were designed with innovative pre-fabrication in mind, and also were set apart by their unique features, such as a state-of-the-art LED lighting and control systems that maximized energy efficiency. Both projects were designed to allow a seamless transition to a Tier IV environment as the load increases.

In order to produce substantial savings in construction costs and reduction in schedule for these projects, Swanson Rink designed the mechanical cooling units to be pre-fabricated off site, with the first skid being promptly delivered to meet the current demand. (As the owner requires additional cooling, new skids will be integrated without interruption and with minimal on site construction). This process requires an upfront analysis of the design team not only to meet the owner’s first cost budget requirements, but also to ensure that the impact to the total cost of construction is economically viable as the owner adds capacity to the facility. Swanson Rink’s designed system was then bid out to a variety of mechanical contractors and system providers, which provided the Owner with the exact system they needed at the best price available. This was a key business driver for the client because a colocation facility needs the ability to have modular growth without significant upfront costs.

Denver Data Center

The Denver Data Center offers cloud computing, wholesale and retail colocation and managed services, and was master planned as a 210,000 square foot, 18-megawatt facility with 140,000 square feet of raised floor. Swanson Rink’s design of the fault tolerant data center met the owner’s electrical and mechanical load requirements, and is designed to transition to Uptime Institute Tier III facility certification and Tier IV design certification as the load increases. The infrastructure was designed to support an initial computer load of 600 KW during Phase 1, with an ultimate build-out load of 6,000kW, and a design that exhibited low Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE).

The critical power system was designed with a ‘4 to make 3’ system topology, leaving less stranded capacity than an N+N solution, and contributing to the low PUE. The mechanical design focused on utilizing air economizer and minimizing water usage. In a normal mode of operation for most hours of the year, the AHU design will be able to provide free or pre-cooling for the data center with the airside economizer, resulting in a low WUE.

Swanson Rink was also met with challenges that required immediate solutions during the design of this project. Specifically, on previous projects, the Owner had standardized on the water economizer for the cooling system to take advantage of the energy efficiency savings; however, because of the lack of water availability associated with this specific geographic location, the owner and the design team had to work together to come up with a viable alternative. That alternative was a modular cooling system with an air economizer that only required water for humidification and thus drastically reduced water use.

Finally, a unique goal of the project was for the internal design to be aesthetically pleasing for marketing and sales efforts. This included tenant areas, the data center raised floor (which had a very high ceiling compared to most sites), and the MEP infrastructure rooms. In particular, the curtain wall established between the actual data center and the marketing tenant area was very conducive to the Owner requests for a unique touch that would not be seen at their competitor’s locations.

Minneapolis Data Center

Unlike the Denver Data Center, the Minneapolis Data Center, was converted from an existing manufacturing plant. Designed to deliver fault tolerance and full redundancy, the project contained 70,000 square feet of raised floor and was designed to support a total critical load of 7200kW.

The design required coordination of a phased utility plan buildout for future Tier IV compliance, and coordination of the power distribution for skid mounted chiller and air handling unit plants. The unique electrical design features consisted of the conversion of the existing 480V secondary to medium voltage service for new 13.8kV generators and distribution, and phasing for future Tier IV redundant power and UPS systems. On the mechanical side, Swanson Rink provided modular skid design for all equipment (for easy capacity increase over time), air side economizers, and direct evaporative cooling and humidification control.

Swanson Rink’s detailed design documents that could be bid exactly as presented, allowed the client to save over 20% per module versus having the module built on site. Additionally, the Minneapolis Data Center was under construction during the winter in a northern climate, and the fact that mechanical system was constructed off-site in a controlled environment allowed the client to stay on schedule by minimizing weather-caused delays. The client is now successfully using this approach on three separate facilities across the US.

Swanson Rink is also providing design for multiple other projects for the client in various locations across the United States.

This Confidential Data Center was built to function as a standalone computing center with the capability to expand power and cooling capacity to support the Client’s IT growth for the next ten years. The ITCC was designed to specifically ensure physical integrity and high availability of the computing environment resolving operational risks that had been present in the previous facilities.

Swanson Rink provided mechanical and electrical engineering design services for this facility, which is only the 23rd data center to receive the Uptime Tier III Constructed Facilities certification in the United States.

The 55,000 square foot data center includes 12,000 square feet of computer room, additional spaces for power and cooling infrastructure, storage, staging and other logistics spaces, and approximately 5,000 square feet of administrative area for assigned personnel. In addition to mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering services, Swanson Rink provided initial consulting on the Program Definition to help the Client define their specific space, infrastructure, and operational needs for the project.

Swanson Rink found this project to be full of unique electrical challenges, and therefore, equally unique solutions. Sizing of the electrical components making up the distribution paths was based on an ultimate computer load of 2,900 kW comprising 320 equipment cabinets rated 8 kW each (2,560 kW) plus 340 kW of network load. The first challenge was providing electrical distribution systems that would meet the Uptime Tier III requirement for concurrent maintainability, providing a system with minimal complexity, while still meeting the space and budget constraints of the project. These requirements met a design concept that used three completely separate distribution systems, any two of which could support all the data center critical loads. This design eliminated the need for paralleling switchboards and greatly simplified the electrical control schemes.

To further facilitate operations, a highly comprehensive electrical system color scheme was used. Swanson Rink developed a color scheme for conduits that met the owner’s requirement to visually distinguish the system wiring (power, control, fire alarm, data, etc.) contained in each conduit. The requirement included distinguishing the source of power for each load and identification of the equipment associated with each distribution system. Swanson Rink resolved these requirements by using commercially available colored conduits. For conduits containing power wiring, solid colors were used to indicate the power source was from a UPS system, while galvanized conduit with colored labels was used to identify the source as non-UPS. The color scheme also utilized colored conduit labels and colored equipment nameplates for each distribution system. The owner carried the color identification further by having the doors to the UPS and generator rooms painted to match the system in the room.

The largest challenge mechanically was achieving the Uptime Tier III rating for the data center when major components of the continuous cooling were being designed by another firm (including the chilled water and fuel-oil that were supplied from a 5,000 ton central plant). This required intense coordination during design and construction to ensure that the Tier III rating was not compromised by decisions made by either firm.

One of the other unique aspects of the Data Center was the owner’s requirement of no facility maintenance personnel on the data center floor during operation. To meet this requirement, Swanson Rink created a mechanical gallery in the middle of the data center floor that housed all the floor mounted CRAC units and two electrical galleries on either end of the data center to house PDUs, transformers and electrical panels. This required analyzing the operation and maintenance requirements of each system and including details in the construction documents that specifically addressed these requirements. The fully coordinated 3-D construction drawings included details as finite as the locations and installation techniques of the fire smoke damper actuators to ensure there was never a need for the maintenance personnel to enter the data center.

The mechanical equipment in the data center was designed to match the electrical design concept. There are three primary cooling systems designed so that any two of the systems will support the load at the full. Each system is comprised of the following primary elements; heat exchanger, a primary pump, secondary pump and chilled water storage tank all of which is installed in the data center. This design approach will make trouble shooting during an emergency easier, and quicker, for the operators.

Swanson Rink received full accolades for design from the Client, and they had the following to say about Swanson Rink: “Thank you for your expert guidance and stewardship through this project.”

Swanson Rink has been awarded the $2,000,000 Mechanical On-Call contract at Denver International Airport (DIA). The On-Call includes mechanical design services for miscellaneous engineering tasks which may include upgrades and replacement of sanitary sewer systems, communication rooms cooling, domestic water system improvements, etc. The work is anticipated to start in fall 2014 with a scheduled duration of two years.

Swanson Rink provided the original design of the mechanical, electrical, telecommunications and security systems for the concourses, in addition to providing various design services over the years on multiple on-call contracts. Swanson Rink is currently completing mechanical, electrical, telecom, security and fueling system design for the DIA Concourse C Expansion.

The word “modular” in the data center industry has taken on many connotations. Almost anyone selling space to house computer equipment from container manufacturers to colocation providers uses the term “modular” to describe the value they bring to the real estate decision on where to house computer equipment. While each of these providers will say that their solution is best, the real answer is that modular can take on many forms based on the needs of the user.

As a consulting engineering firm focused on the design of data center facilities, our team uses the modular concept meaning “pay as you grow” to help end users understand how to right size their facilities to minimize upfront costs, yet evaluate the total cost of the overall phased build-out. This modular approach means designing infrastructure from the beginning that is flexible for the client’s growth. The exact approach depends on the overall business needs of the individual company.

There are two parameters that need to be considered when developing a modular growth and expansion strategy: First is determing the granularity of the growth modules, and the second is the anticipated timing of the growth. These two factors have the greatest influence on the design. The granularity of the growth refers to the number of steps of growth when expanding from the initial capacity to the ultimate capacity of the data center. There can be different growth steps for different systems (white space, UPS, cooling); however, efforts are typically made to closely match the steps or modulars of growth for each of the systems. The second factor is how the timing of the growth impacts the size of the growth module. If it is anticipated that growth from initial load to ultimate load will occur quickly, then the module of growth is typically larger. The reason for this so the facility is not in a continuous state expansion to match the load growth. If the growth will occur over a longer period of time, then more granularity is likely more appropriate.

Further complicating the analysis is the cost impact of these decisions. Typically, with increased granularity, there are increased costs to get to the ultimate build out; therefore, the analysis is to match the size of the modules with the business need, while not putting the client in a position of continual upgrades. Generally, if the expected build out over time is longer, the module of growth can be smaller and still meet the business needs without overspending on infrastructure.

Matching the Owner’s Requirements and the Infrastructure Design. With these two parameters determined, a range of solutions can be considered for the cooling systems and the electrical power infrastructure. Typically, we first consider electrical system options to develop solutions that match the modules of growth parameters. By their nature, electrical systems have more discrete sizing constraints so it is important to optimize these systems first to develop a cost-effective solution without stranded capacity.

Development of the cooling solutions then follows with the objective to match the growth parameters of the electrical solutions. Where electrical systems have discrete sizing, cooling systems tend to be more analog in nature, and a given component can have a range of capacities under different operating conditions. This analog nature of cooling systems allows us to closely match the cooling module size to the electrical module size.

Balancing Modularity with Reliability. Within every solution there are pros and cons that should be considered. While flexibility (which would include modularity) is a big driver in the decision-making process for a client, the user will also need to balance its other goals including reliability, load density, energy efficiency and maintainability. These factors will all influence the final module of growth decision.

Embracing Pre-Fabrication. Embracing the pre-fabrication concept in the design and construction of data centers can provide additional value to the modular or “pay-as-you-grow” strategy. The pre-fabrication concept has expanded beyond the container or proprietary systems to be custom designed, non-proprietary systems that are assembled off-site and brought to the site practically fully assembled.

By designing skid-mounted systems for the initial build and future expansion, users can achieve significant cost and schedule reductions. This process requires the engineering team to produce a complete set of construction documents that includes all fittings, valves and pieces of fully detailed equipment that allows a group of contractors to bid on these documents. The contractors are able to use their increased productivity working in a controlled environment as a competitive advantage that provides an overall cost reduction to the Owner. Based on previous projects, this savings is at least 20% over a traditional on-site construction approach. The time on site is also significantly reduced, which considerably reduces reliability concerns when working on an active data center environment.

The data center industry is full of hype with each company putting their own spin on why their solution is the best. The greatest defense against the hype is for owners to understand the pros and cons of each of their options and to determine the right solution based on their

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Swanson Rink has been awarded a contract to support T1 Partners JV for the Terminal 1 Redevelopment Program at San Francisco International Airport (SFO); a 1-year, on-call contract with the Joint Venture. Swanson Rink will provide engineering services for planning and pre-programming activities to support the Baggage Handling Systems for Terminal 1. The $2 billion, 10-year program consists of renovating Terminal 1 as well as demolishing and replacing Boarding Area B. Improvements will include 24 new aircraft gates, new consolidated passenger-screening checkpoints, new airline ticket counters, new concession facilities, a new consolidated common-use baggage handling system and checked baggage-screening system, and program-wide seismic upgrades. The facilities provided under the program will be built in accordance with LEED Gold standards. Swanson Rink has previously worked at SFO providing baggage handling system engineering services for the Terminal 1 BHS Recapitalization project, which consisted of the replacement of the existing obsolete Explosive Detection Systems equipment and will continue their effort under the T1 Partners’ contract.

Swanson Rink had a busy 2014 holiday season bringing joy to Volunteers of America’s Bannock Youth Center (BYC). We hosted the annual BYC holiday dinner on December 18th, which was complete with plenty of food and a visit from Santa Claus. This is a great opportunity for our employees to get over to the center and meet with the program staff and participants. This year, several Swanson Rink employees also opted to be a part of the “Adopt-a-Family” program, from which young families in need are able to obtain new Christmas gifts to be placed under the tree.

Our big holiday event this year was the “Adopt-a-Program” drive, which differs from “Adopt-A-Family” in that donations are given to the organization as a whole, not just individuals. Swanson Rink chose to sponsor the BYC’s program and participant needs for the 2015 year by holding a drive in our office for items needed. These items ranged anywhere from dish soap to TVs, but there was no shortage of anything on the list. A friendly competition between interoffice teams brought in hundreds of items for the center. Our employees went above-and-beyond bringing in donations, and even donated strollers, Wiis, cell phones, and other useful items that were not on the list! The BYC was happily overwhelmed by our response to their needs.

Swanson Rink is grateful for the opportunity to continue to serve the community through our involvement with the Bannock Youth Center and is thankful for our wonderful employees who continue to make it possible!

Robert (Bob) Yester, PE, Executive Vice President is retiring from Swanson Rink on December 31, 2013 after serving the company for 38 years. Mr. Yester has served in many roles at Swanson Rink including President from 1985-1992, but he is most known as an expert in electrical engineering for mission critical data center facilities.

For almost all of Bob’s career he has provided consulting engineering for the design and renovations of data centers for large and small companies including Comcast, Centurylink (including work under US West and Qwest), Safeway, Lockheed Martin, Federal Express, Viawest, Sabre and United Airlines to name a few. Bob Yester’s design concepts have been published in multiple national publications.

In 1988, Robert Yester, designed one of the first major dual power path data centers in the country for US West (now CenturyLink) in Omaha, Nebraska. This “system + system” concept was cutting-edge during the time and this data center was one of the first two data centers to be built with this new technology. When asked about this project, Mr. Yester commented that while a simple concept, “as they say, the devil is in the details, and there are a lot of details.” The dedication to diving into detailed design is what Mr. Yester is known for and the foundation upon which he built the Swanson Rink data center team.

More recently, Bob has been recognized for his work on the ViaWest Lone Mountain Data Center where his team developed a Uptime Institute Certified Tier IV electrical design with a target PUE of 1.2 utilizing a modular concept that allows capital expenditures for infrastructure to be aligned with the needs of ViaWest’s customers and also minimizes stranded capacity.

When asked by our clients what attributes they admire of him, it was his ability to engage with the client, listen to their needs, and develop solutions that meet those specific needs.

“I have had the unique opportunity of having been both first a client of Bob and then his design associate for the past 20 years, so I have watched and experienced how Bob can make every client feel that they were his most important client. He relishes the opportunity to explain how systems work and did it in such a way as to bring each of his clients into the conversation regardless of their technical background. His ability to listen to the client and then develop a solution to meet their needs is legendary.”
— Gary Orazio, PE, President, Swanson Rink

In 2013, Bob transitioned the management of the data center electrical team to Dan Heggem, PE, Vice President who has worked under Bob for over 23 years. During the past year Dan and Bob have worked together to ensure a smooth transition process in preparation for Bob’s retirement in December. Gary Orazio, PE, President will continue in his role as Project Executive overseeing Swanson Rink’s Data Center Practice, providing mechanical engineering leadership and leading data center business development, positions in which he has served for the past 20 years.

No one person can replace Bob, but he has trained a team of engineers to continue his dedication to detailed engineering. He will be missed by everyone at Swanson Rink.