STC Data Centers, Jeddah and Madinah

Arsmagna, the practice founded by UBIK principal Carlos Garcia Sevilla, produced the detail design of two Tier III carrier data centers for STC in Saudi Arabia’s Western Region, in Jeddah and in Madinah: 3.6 MW of IT load each, over 4,600 m² of white space each in 5,800 m² buildings, between 2018 and 2019. The design documents were certified Tier III by Uptime Institute, and both constructed facilities were certified Tier III in April 2020. This is the leadership experience of a UBIK principal, not a UBIK appointment, and the description stays at the level the client allows.

The facilities

The two facilities were designed to one carrier standard, in two cities with different utility connections, different plots and different climates. The design kept one set of requirements and one set of acceptance criteria, and produced a site-level design for each city.

Scope

• Detail design across every discipline for both facilities: power topology, standby generation and UPS, cooling plant and air distribution, fire protection, security and telecommunications, with the building architecture.
• Design evidence for Tier Certification of Design Documents, and the maintenance and failure states drawn out for the demonstrations of the constructed facilities.

What the work had to resolve

Jeddah’s humidity changes the cooling design: the design wet-bulb as well as the dry-bulb sets the heat rejection capacity and the condensation risk at the air handling. Madinah’s inland climate is drier, and the same plant selection is checked against its own design conditions. A single equipment schedule for two sites is only credible if it has been checked against both climate files at the hottest hour and at the part loads of the early years.

The constructed-facility certifications in 2020 confirmed that the topology drawn in the design documents was the topology demonstrated on both sites, under the assessor’s witness, with the load supported throughout.

Site-specific operating information is not disclosed.