Data centre container for New Zealand’s electricity distributor

While Christchurch was busy rebuilding itself after the earthquake, New Zealand-based electricity distribution company Orion worked hard to keep the city powered. In search of a suitable protection for sensitive computer facilities, Orion commissioned Rittal to supply a transportable data centre container with direct free cooling technology to house its data centre technology.

Surviving the devastation of three major earthquakes in the past 10 months, Orion acts as a centre city bunker. The 6.3 magnitude aftershock saw 50 more buildings crumble around it. Orion was the only safe and functioning building in the city centre. Within the grounds were Orion’s computer facilities - the facilities building was damaged but the equipment was still functioning. To ensure uncompromised IT uptime, Orion chose Rittal to provide a robust modular outdoor data centre for sensitive computer equipment. The main computer facility at Orion was badly affected. The facility has been maintained with Rittal racks and Rittal LCP cooling - all of which survived with no damage or interruption to the service. It was vital for Orion to commission a secure, transportable facility to fortify its sensitive electronics.

Orion chose the Rittal data centre container (RDCC) for its prefabricated and plug-and-play concept, as well as its ability to be moved as required. The project duration on site is very short, within a week the RDCC is up and running. Only data and power cables are required to start the RDCC. “It was also important that we chose a technology supplier we could trust. Orion is already using Rittal’s German engineered solutions for data racks and power infrastructure in the existing facility - the unit was a good fit,” said Neville Digby, Senior Systems Engineer for Orion. Orion sought input from a consultant to advise the best possible cooling solutions.

A deliberate choice was made to move away from chilled water in favour of the Rittal ambient air direct free cooling (DFC) units (with supporting DX cooling during hot days), ensuring a lower power usage effectiveness (PUE) of approximately 1.3. The entire IT infrastructure was integrated in the robust outdoor module and no outer installations were required. Rittal used a custom-built 10 x 3 m container that met the end user’s requirements.

The RDCC comes with 40 kW of direct free cooling, fully redundant UPS with two hours battery backup, remote IP-based management and the Novec1230 gas extinguishing system (DET-AC XL) with integrated early active smoke detection. All data and power cables are managed in a 300 mm high raised floor with heavy-duty rating. The weatherproof and fireproof cable and pipe entry ducts ensure high physical security. The RDCC was prefabricated and pretested in Rittal’s data centre container facility in Germany.