Challenge
An international data centre – known for its world-class, exascale High Performance Computing capability – urgently needed to upgrade the free cooling and heat rejection capacity at its giant supercomputing site in the UK.
Some of the facility’s 10-year-old Dry Air Coolers (DACs) have coils now showing an advanced state of corrosion. The facility has strict environmental goals and must meet stringent Power Usage Effectiveness targets in order to be able to bid on new computing projects. At present, the damaged units are unable to provide either heat rejection or free cooling, and this is severely impacting the operating efficiency of the entire cooling system and causing a substantial increase in energy consumption.
Solution
Trane has a long-term relationship with the customer and has numerous chillers and other units installed across its very large supercomputing site. For this new request, Trane worked closely with the facility manager to identify the worst-performing dry cooler units and devise a solution for one of its plant rooms. Some of the existing units are used for free cooling and some for condensing water heat rejection, with an overall cooling capacity of 13MW.
Trane is replacing two of the worst-performing units with new rental units. Each of the Trane Dry Coolers has capacity of 500kW: two will be used for free cooling and two for heat rejection. Trane Rental will also be providing a control panel to tie the rental units in with the site Building Management System.
Results
The customer has initially contracted to rent the units for a period of 16 weeks. The centre will be measuring the effectiveness of the new units in boosting the overall efficiency of the system to determine the best course of action for future needed upgrades.
