Building Taiwan's energy efficient, environmentally friendly Data Infrastructure
PECL early on in its history designed and helped build the microchip foundries and manufacturing facilities that have powered Taiwan's digital revolution. In an era of cloud computing and cellular networks, it is only natural that we are playing a critical role in building the island's data infrastructure as well. "Data" isn't just a buzzword, though, but is a discrete product that needs to be stored, just like inventory or equipment. And storing data can be costly and energy-intensive. Data centers – where companies place their bulky servers -- use a lot of energy, need cooling and take up a lot of space.
These challenges led Charter to turn to PECL for its data center needs. When it comes to data centers, we are the only firm in Taiwan that has truly integrated, end-to-end EPC (Engineering, Procurement & Construction) experience, including Testing, Commissioning, and Startup (TC&S). And experience counts. Over 140 PECL team members, all bilingual, have worked on the data centers, which made the construction process seamless -- from design to startup -- for Charter's ~15-hectare data center campus in Central Taiwan's Changhua county, the first data center in Taiwan.
In the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park, PECL transformed ~150,000 square meters (m2) of land into three data centers: CHG-1, CHG-2, and CHG-3, with capacities ranging from 30MW to 56MW. PECL also delivered on an EPC basis ancillary facilities and scope such a central utility buildings, substation and HV switchyard facilities to support the operations of the three data centers.
Project Scope
PECL provided the full EPC turnkey services for Charter: Design, Procurement, Construction, Testing, Commissioning, and Startup, which included full Project Management. Work was performed by construction subcontractors, all of which were procured (via competitive tendering) managed and coordinated by PECL. Some of the project scope items included:
- Site preparation and soil improvement of the Changhua campus, including subgrade utility design and installation, landscaping and hardscaping;
- Localization of the Charter standard DC schemes;
- Permitting and statutory approvals;
- CSA (Civil, Structural & Architectural) engineering services for pilings, steel structures, arch, site, civil, U/G (underground) utility, and PC (precast concrete) Panels;
- MEPF (Mechanical, Electrical & Plumbing, Firefighting) engineering services for plumbing and firefighting systems, power supply, fuel oil and control, and BMS (Building Management Systems);
- Purchasing of cooling towers, fuel oil tanks, TES tanks and pumps, 161kV oil immersed transformers;
- Testing, start-up and commissioning working in partnership with Charter's commissioning agent;
- As-built documentation, O&M manuals and materials, spare parts listing; and,
- Warranty administration.
Our engineering team was well equipped to manage the design, and the BIM (Building Information Modeling) team rendered the construction process in 3D, choregraphing the construction sequence, avoiding costly construction clashes and accelerating progress.
PECL’s Virtual Delivery of Charter CHG Data Centers included:
- Full BIM Digital Delivery
- Accessibility & Maintainability assurance
- Clash Management and Space Optimization
- Cloud based BIM platform management
- Direct extraction of 2D IFC drawings from 3D
- Direct extraction of steel & ISO shop drawings from 3D
- BIM Model analysis and simulations
- BIM Center R&D to enhance production output and quality
- BIM Component Management System
- Full structural connection design
- BIM integration across Autodesk Revit, Trimble Tekla and Bentley OpenPlant
- BIM360 for model collaboration
PECL over the life of the 3 projects engaged over 140 professionals using BIM Revit, with a further 20-plus on Tekla, and another 30-plus on OpenPlant in support of delivery.
To mitigate the environmental impact, the DC facilities were constructed using sustainable materials as well as state-of-the-art cooling technology. The region's cool nighttime air chills insulated water tanks. During daytime, the cold water is pumped through pipes in the facility to cool down the servers. This innovative solution significantly cuts down the center's electricity needs while lowering the customer's environmental footprint. And it has cemented the facility's place as one of the most environmentally friendly data centers in the world, with one of the best PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) in Charter's Asia-Pacific fleet.
PECL excels at safe and efficient project delivery, and the Charter data center complex was no exception. By enforcing stringent safety and housekeeping standards, we achieved 1,000,000 hours without a Lost Time Incident and completed the project on schedule under tight deadlines and within budget amidst fast-paced design changes.