GENERAL ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEMS COMPUTER DATA CENTER
GE Power Systems turned to Friedman Fisher Associates to design the relocation and expansion of the Schenectady Plant's main computer system data room. The space chosen was an under-utilized office block within a heavy manufacturing building. The scope of work was initially to relocate the mainframe computers to one floor of the building. During design it was decided to expand the project and consolidate numerous other computer centers from other GE sites to the main plant. Ultimately, the project design included the consolidation of four data centers onto two separate floors covering over 14,000 square feet of raised floor computer space.
The electrical system is designed around a redundancy philosophy of N + 1. All equipment is back up with redundant equipment that comes on line automatically. As part of this project, this meant a total of four 90KVA Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS), completely separate switchgear for mechanical equipment and computer loads, Power Distribution Units (PDU) on the raised floor areas with static by-pass switches and step down transformers and the required emergency generator capacity and transfer switches. The incoming power was supplied from the plant system as two separate 600 Volt feeds and transformed down to feed the 480 V loads. Over a hundred server racks were designed for relocation and installation in close cooperation with GE IT staff. All cabling was specified and designed to be run on cable trays below the raised floor. Another strata was designed for power wiring. A comprehensive grounding loop was installed as well as a water detection sensing system. Work included the relocation and expansion of a voice PBX.
The mechanical equipment was designed principally using Liebert precision air conditioning units with refrigerant split condensing units. All water and condensate piping was run in double walled containment piping. The entire computer room area both above and below the floor is protected with an FM-200 fire protection system. An emergency purge ventilation system was designed to evacuate the gas after discharge.
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