A Southern California utility company wanted to design its latest data center as a nation-wide showcase to the industry, demonstrating the success and reliability that could be achieved by embracing innovative efficiency measures. Glumac provided mechanical, electrical, and plumbing services for the project, and helped the client become an early adopter of several systems that have since become mainstream within the industry.

Initial plans called for the construction of a large chilled water plant to provide cooling for the server racks. However, after studying several alternative energy-efficient cooling solutions, Glumac’s team advocated a directive evaporative cooling solution that was less complex and required about a third of the refrigeration that would have been used in the proposed chilled water plant. To ensure comfortable buy-in by the client, the Glumac team took the time to walk them through operating models of the design to demonstrate its functionality and prove its ability to work reliably. Similarly, a flywheel UPS energy storage system was implemented, and the ensure the client’s comfort with the system, the Glumac team invited them to tour off site installations that demonstrated they efficiency and reliability of the flywheel over battery storage.

The resulting Tier III facility was certified LEED Gold, and the innovative features that were introduced resulted in a peak PUE of 1.48 and an annual average PUE of 1.26.

Size: 62000 sf
Cost: $2,759,000
Completion Date: 2012
Architect: Callison
Contractor: Turner Construction