The pace has certainly picked up now, as we push towards phase one completion at London East.
This acute focus has left little time for the blog, and as broad strokes visual change has slowed down at this point, we’ve put together a four week short summary of the last month on-site at NLE.
Weekly overview
Phase one completion will see the facility ready to take its first clients, which is an enormous milestone for us here at Netwise.
There will still be some ongoing works beyond phase one, which will include things like our customer lounge and some other secondary niceties, as primary focus at this point is getting the technical spaces completed and ready to receive live client systems.
Looking slightly further ahead still, phase two will involve the preparation and roll-out of further technical space, making use of the other data halls, which given the amount of work put in ahead of time for this will certainly come to fruition much more quickly. This is expected in 2022, and will be based on a dynamic roll-out schedule, driven largely by demand.
The largest area of progress in this instalment of the build blog has been centred around air conditioning. This is not our primary cooling source in the technical spaces at NLE, with that role falling to our extremely efficient adiabatic systems, however traditional AC does still play a crucial role in both supplementary cooling in critical spaces, and comfort cooling in customer and staff areas.
This is a view inside the cooling control system unit for Data Hall 1, as the internal termination reaches completion The pipework for both the supplementary CRAC systems and the comfort cooling throughout the building are comprised of some very long pipe runs, depending on the location of the internal equipmentSome of the pipe runs for the AC systems have been fairly complex, because of their routes, and because of how split systems have their pipework distributed between endpoints One of the main convergent runs of AC pipework can be found on our storage mezzanine, as the runs cross towards the exterior condenser areaHere we see one of the main runs coming together, which traverses the storage mezzanine before reaching the exterior skin and turning down towards the point of exitPower cabling also joins the pipework runs, with drainage to followHere’s a snapshot of the complex manifold work happening in one of the ceilings, as the split systems are evenly distributed to ensure even pressureThis is the AC unit in the build room and customer breakout area, as the cabling begins to be terminated internallyAll comfort cooling systems have in-room control panelsThis is the control panel for the system in another customer amenity space, which also allows for remote operation and monitoringHere we see some of the external condensers being worked on by our AC engineersThe external condensers are laid out in a grid which enables plenty of future growth The larger condensers here are for the supplementary downflow units in the data halls, temporarily stood on their rubber feet ahead of permanent fixture Here we see the overhead lighting system installation underway in the cold corridor area for Data Hall 1 – this is where external air is filtered and processed for our primary CRAC systemThe UPSs and UPS switchboards are now in place and terminated in LV B, to match the state in LV AOur main LV switchboards in both LV rooms have now had their line diagram vinyls fitted, taking both boards to completion ahead of energisation for commissioning and setupThe line diagrams are fitted to all switchboards, including the smaller sub-boards for the UPS systemsHere we see one of our custom designed security panels fitted to Pod 1 in Data Hall 1, for the privatisation of racks within said containment systemWe’ve now fitted the razor wire to the top of our compound fencing, which aside from adding electric motor controls to the main gate, takes this area to completionThe razor wire now runs the entire perimeter of the facilityWe designed a custom implementation of the razor wire retention system to allow for the retraction of our large vehicle access gateAs part of the final stage of work, we’ve had any construction marks and / or damage on our metal clad panel walls repaired, which included full panel respraying where necessaryAny panels with damage incurred during the build have been returned to factory conditionThe spray team were able to achieve a truly flawless finishWe’re very pleased with the outcome of the retouch and repair works undertaken throughout the facilityThe VESDA pipework has now been installed in both LV rooms
As you can see, NLE is still an extremely busy site, with lots of finishing stage work underway. Yet so much more of the work being undertaken at this point is not of a visual nature; commissioning of power systems, access control, network setup, CCTV etc, these are all tasks with little to photograph. However progress across all of these areas will be relayed when suitable.
We’re certainly entering into an exciting period of the build, as major systems begin to see energisation for the first time.
What’s next?
More of the same as we head towards phase one end-out. Keep your eyes peeled for the next instalment of the blog, which will show much of the major infrastructure being onlined for the first time!
