N+ONE Dakar Hyperscale Campus Study, Senegal

N+ONE engaged UBIK in 2025 for the preliminary study of a hyperscale data center campus in Dakar: 4 MW of critical IT load, built in phases. The study produced the documents an investment decision needs before a plot is bought or a utility application is filed: the site analysis, the power balance and load trajectory, the technical architecture options, the phasing and the investment envelope. A second study, for Abidjan, followed in 2026.

The question

In Dakar the utility programme is the critical path. The study kept a register of the utility position for the site: what had been requested, what was confirmed in writing, what the utility’s own reinforcement programme depended on, and what the operator would do if the date slipped by a year. Standby generation and fuel autonomy were sized against that position.

Scope

• Programming: the capacity by phase, the resilience objective and the operating model, written as a brief the design team can use.
• Site analysis: plot capacity at the final phase on a test-fit, utility and water, climate design conditions, logistics, setbacks and security.
• Load trajectory and power balance: the 4 MW ultimate capacity, the first installed phase and the expected operating load in the early years.
• Technical architecture options for power and cooling, with the phasing of the central plant and the investment envelope for each option.
• A ranked decision sequence: what to resolve first, who resolves it and which commitment each resolution unlocks.

What the work had to resolve

Dakar’s coastal climate sets the cooling strategy: the heat rejection options were tested against the city’s climate file at the design hour and at part load, and water availability and its risk were assessed with the utility before any evaporative strategy was considered. On the plot, the generator yard with its fuel, the substation, the chiller row and the expansion of the halls were drawn together at the final phase.

With the Abidjan study, the work gives N+ONE a common design basis for the region and a decision sequence for each site. Findings, site plans and the operator’s commercial information are not published.