H5 DATA CENTER
Greenwood Village, Colorado

THE PROJECT
The H5 Data Center renovation project involved a major upgrade of the electrical infrastructure serving the 4 building, 12-acre Greenwood, CO campus.Guarantee Electrical Company’s (Guarantee) service included removal and replacement of two (2) medium voltage 4000Amp Service-Entrance Switchgear, with matching main-tie-main and two (2) 4000Amp UPS Input Switchgear using 4000Amp bus duct ties. In addition, the implementation encompassed the installation of a total of 6 UPS modules supported by two 4000Amp UPS Output Switchgear along with two (2) 4000Amp UPS Critical Distribution Switchgear. All interconnections were made using 4000Amp bus duct installed on the basement level. Among the unique challenges the Guarantee team faced was the sheer weight of the equipment being removed and installed. At approximately 1500 pounds for each of the Switchgear and as much as 2500 for the UPS equipment was well in excess of the capacity of the building’s freight elevator. As a consequence, the team had to carefully remove a portion of an exterior wall to expand access to the building’s mechanical chase, and made use of a gantry crane to raise and lower each piece of equipment out of and into the basement electrical room.

OUR APPROACH
The project called for a wholesale replacement of the medium voltage infrastructure bringing the utility feeds to the main system where the service entrance switchgear would then distribute standardized power via a main tie using 4000Amp bus duct. Removal, replacement and cutover to the new equipment had to be accomplished without any interruption of data center operations. All the work was staged and sequenced to assure this operational integrity. In addition, to make sure that loads were transferred safely from the obsolete equipment the Guarantee team cut over to temporary units at key moments between removal and the installation of new equipment to avoid outages and assure the availability of redundant backup power.

OUR WORK
Guarantee managed the project with variable crew sizes to meet the challenge of speed of project vs. cutover safety concerns for the duration of the project. All personnel were equipped with chain falls and duct hoists for installation of the distribution system. The H5 Renovation project was completed flawlessly without service interruptions even for the vital periods during which the team cut over to the permanent replacement equipment from the interim system configured to manage the transition. The effort taken to carefully deconstruct an exterior wall to accommodate mounting a gantry crane in the limited space available, was accomplished without incident or interruption of operations.

PROJECT SUCCESS:
The renovation and replacement of the electrical infrastructure, including introduction of a new highly efficient, state-of-the-art 4000Amp bus duct system to replace massive traditional conduit was completed on schedule and on budget, without interrupting or lost time incident or injury.

HIGHLIGHTS:
• Wholesale replacement of existing medium voltage switchgear (4000Amp) and comparable backup UPS systems with efficient, smaller footprint Service Entrance
Switchgear and distribution
• In addition to the new equipment Guarantee installed a new, much more efficient bus duct system scaled to manage current and anticipated demand, saving limited physical space as well as energy
• The bus duct system was custom designed in 5 ft. lengths to simplify installation in the limited space below the floor.