Our construction of a new £30m supercomputing centre has moved a step closer with the specialist installation of mechanical and electrical (M&E) systems now underway.
Located at the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) Daresbury Laboratory, the 33,000 sq ft facility is being built by Russell WBHO and on track to complete by early 2025. The building has been designed to host the latest in new supercomputing artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum technologies.
With all major elements of the building’s structure now complete, Russell WBHO is working with partner Sudlows to install critical M&E infrastructure.
To provide the extensive power required for the new centre, the electrical services will deliver a high-density load of 2.5MW with the capacity to expand up to 7.5MW in the future.
Through design and development with Russell WBHO’s specialist supply chain, systems are also being installed which will ensure continuous power for M&E equipment via dedicated transformers, generators, and UPS batteries.
To prevent IT equipment from overheating, a direct-chip water cooling system forms part of the design. This combines with state-of-the-art air-cooling chillers to efficiently dissipate heat throughout the building.
The main incoming infrastructure has an N+N redundancy arrangement for power and data, which means there is a backup for every key component, ensuring no downtime if one element fails. This design demanded extensive underground services routes which had to be very carefully coordinated. This was achieved using 3D modelling information exchanges between the Russell WBHO design team and its partners.
Maximising safety, the building is being constructed to exceed Building Control requirements. Enhanced measures include a gas suppression system to the high voltage (HV) and low voltage (LV) switch rooms as well as the battery rooms.
Jonathan Rhodes, Project Director at Russell WBHO commented: “This complex M&E installation marks the final stages of this exciting project and is the culmination of extensive design work with our partner Sudlows and other specialists.
“The team is making great progress with the commissioning period due to start within the next few months. This process will take us through to the end of this year ready for our client to install their high-performance computing technology in early 2025.”
