McKenney’s expanded a chiller plant at one of the world’s largest data centers in order to deliver energy savings, boost redundancy and help decrease the risk of outages.

THE CHALLENGE

The facility needed to stay operational during the addition and integration of a new waterside economizer and 90,000-gallon thermal storage system. The project required multiple connections to live piping systems, making careful planning, detailed methods of procedure (MOPs) and collaboration with the owner and other trades essential.

THE SOLUTION

The team started by preparing a detailed step-by-step pipe connection plan, installation schedule and MOPs. Plans included sequences for valve modulations and drain-down, followed by flushing and cleaning procedures—with durations for all tasks. The team also prefabricated large sections of piping to minimize downtime, reduce crew size and limit the need for onsite material storage.

THE RESULTS

Under budget and ahead of schedule, the project caused no disruption to critical data center systems and provided the owner immediate energy savings from the economizer and peace of mind with additional thermal storage.