CoreSite Realty Corporation

Summary

CoreSite recently delivered its twelfth data center, the second of four planned data centers at its Santa Clara campus. CoreSite assessed the project according to brand standards: a strong focus on reliability and security for the continuity of future customer deployments as well as innovative, energy-efficient design.

Challenge

As a data center and interconnection services industry leader, CoreSite goes to great lengths to ensure optimal design with every individual redevelopment or new-build data center project. This includes exploring the newest data center infrastructure and process technology to validate the potential performance of any data center.

Having already delivered an award-winning data center at its Santa Clara campus, CoreSite’s newest challenge was designing its next campus location to an even higher level of energy efficiency and environmental responsibility, while maintaining CoreSite’s brand standard of reliability, flexibility, scalability and security.

Solution

CoreSite selected Trane with the goal of leveraging the latest in cooling infrastructure and design expertise to deliver a custom cooling process unique to the industry. With a clear understanding of data centers and how to most efficiently control their environment, Trane worked closely with the CoreSite data center personnel to develop a solution that combined equipment, controls and control sequences to accomplish this objective.

Efficiency and energy savings
Evaporative cooling was used to reduce the load on the mechanical equipment and ensure proper humidity levels in the data center. The cost-effective system uses evaporation to lower air temperatures, reducing the load on the HVAC compressors. The evaporative system meets cooling requirements, while using only 25 percent of the energy of a conventional system. In addition, rainwater is captured and reused to lower water consumption, reducing reliance on city water to run the system.

Pre-engineered for reliable operation
A Trane IntelliPak™ Rooftop System with controls and Rapid Restart™ was installed to increase energy efficiency, while reducing data center downtime. The system was designed with pre-engineered logic for reliable operation. Advanced controls on the IntelliPak use smart strategies that adapt to changes and adverse conditions to keep the system running.

The pre-engineered Rapid Restart™ control solution integrates into IntelliPak to enhance data center reliability. In the event of a power outage, the IntelliPak units are designed to go from full stop (no power) to full cooling in 120 seconds or less after regaining electrical power, preventing overheating of the servers. Upon meeting the required cooling needs during the rapid restart sequence, the unit will automatically shift into standard cooling operation.

Customized for customer comfort
With the modular system located on the roof, noise levels in the data centers are decreased, making it more comfortable for customers. Cooling equipment is dedicated for each data center room without overlap with other systems. This allows CoreSite to customize data center set points based on each customer’s needs.

Systems and services
• A cost-effective evaporative cooling system reduces mechanical cooling and improves load profile.
• The IntelliPak™ Rooftop System with advanced controls and Rapid Restart™ maximizes uptime.

Results

Trane was able to exceed CoreSite’s expectations, delivering a cooling process not yet seen by the data center and interconnection industry. The innovative design produces an ideal data center operating environment by optimizing Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) levels as well as Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) in the same system. The projected average annual PUE of 1.26 would make CoreSite’s newest data center the most efficient in its portfolio and one of the most efficient in the U.S. Trane’s custom cooling process will also play a significant role in CoreSite’s application for U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification.

"Trane understands the importance of keeping our data centers running," said Jay DiMaggio, executive project manager, CoreSite. "With the modular system, we don’t have to worry about the complexity of cooling towers, pumps, chillers, pipes or valves. The data center is reliable, efficient and scalable."

About CoreSite Realty Corporation

Managing more than two million square feet of data center space in seven major U.S. markets, CoreSite is one of the largest providers of carrier-neutral data centers and interconnection services in the country.