Data centre cooling
Data centre cooling plant rooms, built offsite
Prefabricated chilled-water plant rooms, pump skids and heat exchanger modules for data centre operators, developers and their delivery teams. Designed for redundancy, tested before dispatch, installed in short site windows.
Overview
Cooling plant that arrives ready, on programme
Data centre programmes are driven by energisation and handover dates. Site-built mechanical plant competes for space, labour and time with electrical fit-out. Prefabricating the cooling plant moves fabrication, welding and pressure testing into the workshop and leaves site teams with set-down and connection.
We design and build the plant around the cooling strategy: air-cooled chillers, dry coolers with free cooling, evaporative heat rejection, or liquid cooling to the rack.
- Duplicated plant and isolation for maintenance without loss of cooling
- Repeatable modules for phased data hall roll-out
- Factory acceptance testing witnessed before delivery
- Documentation to support Level 1 to Level 5 commissioning
Scope
Data centre plant we build
Chilled-water plant rooms
Primary and secondary pumping, buffer vessels, headers, pressurisation and controls in an external enclosure serving chillers or dry coolers.
Pump skids
Duty, assist and standby pumps on inverters, with isolation, non-return valves, strainers and flow measurement.
Free cooling and heat exchange
Plate heat exchanger skids for economiser operation and hydraulic separation between glycol and water circuits.
Liquid cooling loops
Technology cooling system skids and secondary loops serving coolant distribution units for direct-to-chip cooling.
Heat recovery
Heat pump and heat exchanger plant that recovers data hall heat for campus buildings or export to a heat network.
Water quality
Side-stream filtration, dosing, degassing and monitoring to protect plate heat exchangers and cold plates.
Resilience
Redundancy and maintainability
Topology is agreed with the operator and design team before fabrication starts.
| Arrangement | What it means in the plant room | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| N | Plant sized to the load, no spare | Non-critical or ancillary cooling |
| N+1 | One additional pump, heat exchanger or chiller connection on each duty set | Most enterprise and colocation halls |
| 2N | Two fully independent systems, A and B, each able to carry the full load | Critical halls and high-density AI deployments |
| Concurrently maintainable | Valving, bypasses and dual paths so any component can be isolated without loss of cooling | Operators targeting high-availability design standards |
Delivery
Built for the data centre programme
- Design freeze: schematics, GA drawings, load and redundancy confirmed, points list issued.
- Fabrication: plant, pipework, insulation, electrics and controls built in parallel with site works.
- FAT: pressure and functional testing, witnessed by the client team.
- Delivery: lift plan and logistics agreed with the principal contractor; set-down in planned windows.
- Commissioning: flushing, water treatment, controls set-up and support for integrated systems testing.
FAQ
Data centre cooling questions
See also skid-mounted plant and packaged plant rooms.
Further reading
What do you supply for data centre cooling?
Prefabricated chilled-water plant rooms, primary and secondary pump skids, plate heat exchanger skids for free cooling and heat recovery, technology cooling system (TCS) loops for liquid cooling, buffer vessels, pressurisation, water treatment and filtration. Chillers and dry coolers can be specified by us or supplied by others and integrated.
Can you design for N+1 or 2N redundancy?
Yes. Redundancy is set at design stage: N+1 pumps and heat exchangers, dual headers or fully separate A and B systems, with isolation arranged so plant can be maintained without loss of cooling.
Do you support factory acceptance testing?
Yes. Pressure tests, functional tests of pumps, valves and controls, and points-to-points with the BMS can be witnessed in the workshop before delivery, ahead of site commissioning and integrated systems testing.
Can you work to an operator's or consultant's design standards?
Yes. We work to the client's employer's requirements, M&E consultant specifications and operator standards, and issue drawings, schematics and points lists for approval before fabrication.
Do you also supply heating plant for data centre campuses?
Yes. Packaged gas or heat pump plant rooms for offices, welfare and ancillary buildings, and heat recovery plant that uses data hall heat for buildings or heat networks.
Enquiries
Data centre cooling plant to deliver?
Share the cooling load, redundancy target, heat rejection strategy and programme. We will respond with a proposed plant arrangement and next steps.