ABN AMRO

CRITICAL FACILITY COMMISSIONING

Chicago, Illinois

The project included commissioning a new data center for a 30-story building located in Chicago, where floors 3, 4, and 5 were used for the data center. The project included 80,000 square feet of raised floor for the data center. The mechanical and electrical infrastructure included the following:

• Central chilled water plant with six (6) 1,000 ton chillers
• Fully redundant Tier IV, 2(N+1)
• Protected power systems includes 6,000 kVA of uninterruptible power systems in a multi-module A/B configuration
• Stand-by power includes six (6) 2 megawatt diesel generators
• Set up an extension office in downtown Chicago during the commissioning process for the months of May, June, July, and August

Limited Schedule

We arrived on site in April; the data center was scheduled to go live by September 1st. When we arrived, the 30-story building was still well under construction. We provided a comprehensive engineering evaluation and report. From this review, we developed a comprehensive commissioning plan to bring the data center online and on schedule.

We administered daily observation and inspections of the systems as they were being installed. This minimized the commissioning timeline that is normally required once the systems are installed. We chaired weekly commissioning meetings with all the contractors, outlining requirements and necessary tasks needed to meet the online date. Working side-by-side with the installing contractors, design engineers, and facility managers, we were able to effectively eliminate potential operational problems during the installation.

Exceeding Client Expectations

Eighteen months after the project completion, we provided Level 5 annual commissioning for this project. This included load testing generators and UPS modules, performing battery discharge testing for UPS batteries, and integration testing of alarms and redundant systems. Services provided for annual commissioning included:

• Detailed step-by-step method of procedures
• Load bank coordination and installation supervision
• On site supervision during all testing
• Integration testing of alarms and monitoring systems