Telecommunications Central Utility Plant and Data Center

Challenge

A leading global telecommunications company had plans to build new office space and data center in the heart of its’ existing southern California corporate campus.  These plans required an additional 2,800-tons of central cooling plant capacity, along with approximately 2MW of additional data center capacity.  These plans were also accompanied by a series of challenges:  meeting an aggressive fast-track schedule for completion, while simultaneously minimizing disruption to the busy campus and meeting corporate goals for utilizing “leaner”, “greener” construction methodologies.

Solution

To address those challenges, the project team chose the Off Site Construction (OSC) approach.  Epsilon was selected and engaged early in the project development process to help develop – in collaboration with the owner and construction manager – the best balance of OSC, prefabrication, and traditional field-built construction.  Ultimately, the team landed on a solution where Epsilon provided the 2,800-ton (4 x 700-ton) water-cooled chiller plant and data center white space in a modular format; this modular scope was then closely integrated with an adjacent and traditionally field-built 5MW cogeneration plant.

Following the project award in July 2012, the Epsilon modular chiller plant was designed, fabricated and delivered by April 2013, with the data center modules following in July 2013.  The OSC approach enabled “parallel path” construction – where simultaneous field construction and OSC activities resulted in significant schedule compression.  As a result, the total project timeline was a rapid 18 months from initiation to completion of Level 5 Commissioning – all while minimizing impact to the client’s campus.  Additionally, the OSC approach directly addressed the lean/green goals of the client, given the inherent labor and material efficiencies that accompany fabrication in a controlled factory environment.  Furthermore, shifting the vast majority of labor hours off-site enabled the project to be executed with negligible disruption to the client’s operations.