Commissioning Solutions

Project Description
Sprint constructed internet data centers in major cities nationwide in multiple phases. Locations included New York, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, and Santa Clara, CA (Silicon Valley). All sites included an initial build-out of 15,000 to 30,000 sf of raised-floor space, readily expandable to 75,000 to 100,000 sf. All sites were designed for 50 watts per square foot of floor area initially, with ultimate build-out to 150 watts per square foot.

ViroCon provided electrical and mechanical systems commissioning services for the web hosting data centers. To allow the fastest possible turnover of the completed facility, these extremely fast-paced projects required the commissioning team to work side-by-side with the contractors and engineers so that each system could be commissioned and tested as it became available.

After the individual systems were commissioned at each site, integrated mechanical/electrical systems load and functional tests (IST) were performed. These tests analyzed the reaction of all mechanical and electrical systems to many system failure scenarios while the data center operated at its rated load.

The second and third phases of one site included capacity expansion of a live data center from 50 and 150 W/sf. Other commissioning included interfaces to building management systems, emergency power off, and grounding systems.

Additional electrical services performed included engineering design reviews, assistance of vendors with startup services and troubleshooting, overcurrent coordination studies, setup of medium voltage protective relaying, and development of detailed switchgear operating sequences to supplement design documents.

Additional mechanical services performed included design review, assisting the BAS contractor with startup and debugging of control sequences and logic, test and balance of critical systems, and risk assessment of temporary mechanical systems.