Global Switch London South, London, UK

Built to meet the demands of today’s highly connected and expanding digital economy, Global Switch’s flexible large-scale data centres are designed to meet the evolving needs of businesses. To address growing demand, Global Switch is planning a new 40MW data centre on their existing London campus.

The data centre’s technical suites have been specifically designed to offer a range of power densities from 3,000W/m² as standard to >5,000W/m² with liquid cooling optionality, making it the ideal environment for the evolving technology to support low latency AI solutions to serve London.

A mixed hybrid cooling and water-cooled chiller assist strategy will offer valuable benefits in terms of optimising power usage effectiveness (PUE) and water usage effectiveness (WUE). This will provide a high degree of flexibility, ensuring efficient utilisation of resources and reducing environmental impact.

To facilitate a phased implementation, our mechanical and electrical systems have been meticulously designed. Each typical floor incorporates local data hall substations equipped with low-loss 2500kVA transformers and 11kV switchgear.

This approach will offer several advantages. The phased implementation will allow for efficient deployment of resources, ensuring that each stage is seamlessly integrated into the overall system. The provision of local data hall substations enhances reliability and enables effective distribution of power within the data centre. Additionally, the construction of a new 132kV substation will enable a robust and resilient power supply, further bolstering the stability and scalability of the entire infrastructure.

The project will feature:

• Data hall cooling via fan walls, hybrid cooling and water-cooled chillers
• High efficiency self-scaling modular UPS systems
• Hot aisle containment and elevated server inlet temperatures
• Self-cooled high efficiency transformers
• Heat pump heating/cooling of office spaces
• Sophisticated optimised control and monitoring systems
• Integrated communication network.

The result will be a 40MW data centre that caters to the evolving needs of businesses. The data centre’s high power density and sustainable cooling strategy, along with meticulously planned systems, facilitate reliability and scalability for future growth.