Learn all the details of this project carried out in Venezuela by RefriAmerica, for the air conditioning of a data center in the city of Valencia.
By ACR Latin America
Despite the economic and political difficulties, Venezuela continues to generate movements within the HVAC industry; the sector of new constructions and remodeling continues to move, and it is there where the companies in charge of executing projects continue to bet on development.
On this occasion, we will present a Success Story of the contractor company RefriAmerica. This is an air conditioning project for the technological infrastructure sector carried out in the first TIERIII certified data center in Venezuela (DaycoHost), in the city of Valencia.
Omar Yvan Vivas G., CEO, and Néstor A. Sánchez, Project Manager of RefriAmerica, gave all the details of the project that did not have any previous installation, and that was executed in an industrial zone projected for the business sector, where much of the manufacturing, food and technology sector is located.
The main objective of the installed system is to maintain the operating conditions of the data centers, delivering reliability in the operation and redundancy between equipment in order to guarantee the maximum energy savings of the infrastructure and precision temperature and humidity conditions. The central conditioning system is integrated with an automation system in which all critical control variables of the infrastructure are managed, in order to monitor and report any failures or eventualities that may put data center operations at risk.
Installed system details
As previously mentioned, this project had as its scope the supply and installation of a central air conditioning system, which was projected in two sub-systems: one for the data center area and service areas and another for the commercial office area.
This system is made up of two engine rooms. The first is the one that conditions the data center, it is composed of three (3) Carrier coolers model 30RB of air condensation and scroll compressors of 200Tons each for a total of 600Tons of installed capacity. This system works in conjunction with six (6) precision air handling units of 80Tons each (data center), three (3) precision units of 40Tons (UPS room), six (6) comfort air handling units of 10Tons (Pump Room and Power Rooms)."
The second sub-system consists of one (1) 90Tons air condensing ice water cooler, which serves the commercial office areas of the infrastructure. As far as the recirculation of ice water is concerned, a variable primary and secondary pumping system was designed to handle the minimum and maximum flows required by the equipment operating at partial and peak loads. With the use of VFD (variable frequency drives) it was possible to reduce excessive consumption of electrical energy in the start and stop of the system.
Regarding the technical characteristics of the installed system, its operation and the differences compared to the models offered by other companies, the representatives of the contractor company explained that "this system was designed with the aim of providing the necessary comfort for the operation of a data center of this size, which requires extremely rigorous and strict conditions in terms of monitoring and control of variables, such as temperature and relative humidity, in order to preserve the operability and useful life of data and information processing equipment. To do this, ice water chillers with scroll compressor technology were used, which have the ability to operate in circuits of three (3) and four (4) compressors per circuit, giving operational reliability to the system in case of failure of any of them. "
Features, such as having backup equipment, and the same technology of the equipment, were factors that allowed RefriAmerica to successfully execute this project. "In order to comply with the requirements of international TIER certification, n+1 equipment was supplied, that is, for each equipment supplied a backup of the same was installed, since this is an infrastructure projected to operate 24/7, without any interruption of its operations in the storage of data and information of government entities, banking sector, etc. RefriAmerica's main differentiating factor from competing manufacturers was based on the compressor technology offered by our company."
In the company it was highlighted that the offer of other competitors was with "screw type compressors for the installed capacity. A chiller with screw compressors at most would have only two compressors, dividing the capacity of the unit into only two cooling circuits, which offers little reliability in operation. RefriAmerica offered equipment with scroll compressor technology, manufactured exclusively by our represented brand Carrier for these 200Tons capabilities. For this project, the supplied chillers, based on this capacity, have three (3) cooling circuits composed of three (3) and four (4) compressors, dividing the total capacity into ten (10) compression stages. This technology generates in the system a great reliability and support for the type of operation required".
Like any project, difficulties are presented as a new challenge to assume and solve with professionalism. In this case, RefriAmerica experienced some challenges that it was able to solve in the best way. "The greatest difficulty was in handling the load of the precision air handling units internally in the infrastructure. These units have very large dimensions and are robust in weight, at the same time, the building being industrial, has narrow corridors and in some environments low heights. To achieve the management of the equipment, our company had to disassemble and divide each unit into three parts to facilitate entry into the required area. For the installation in its original position, according to project and specification, load and fixing elements were used in compliance with all the regulations and requirements of the project".
After the project, RefriAmerica explained that the end user satisfied all their air conditioning needs: "The satisfaction of the end user is based on having a centralized air conditioning system with redundant operations, which gives the client operational confidence and better use of energy based on efficiency, while complying with the regulations required to be a unique TIER III data center in Venezuela endorsed with this certification.
Project Overview
Installation signature: RefriAmerica C.A. (Venezuela).
Manufacturers involved: Carrier, Huntair, Distech, Belimo, Armstrong, Metalaire.
Company or place covered with the installation: DaycoHost Valencia-Venezuela
Installation dates: 2014-2017
