ABB has delivered what it describes because the UK’s first turnkey medium-voltage uninterruptible energy provide system for AI workloads at Ark Information Centres’ Surrey campus, in a undertaking that goals to spice up effectivity, minimize generator use and unencumber area for dense compute.
Put in in partnership with Ark Information Centres and engineering agency JCA, the brand new UPS is designed to help Ark’s deliberate AI hub on the campus. The AI hub is anticipated to be residence to the UK’s first deployment of NVIDIA Blackwell B300 GPUs, that are seen by many business specialists as the perfect AI GPUs at present out there.
The brand new system is particularly sized to help capability for high-performance GPUs utilized in large-scale AI coaching and inference. ABB says that’s as a result of its MV energy design brings the grid connection and UPS collectively at medium voltage reasonably than stepping down early to low voltage.
“AI is accelerating knowledge centre development and intensifying the strain to ship capability that’s environment friendly, resilient, and sustainable. With ABB, we’ve delivered a first-of-its-kind resolution that positions Ark to fulfill these challenges whereas supporting the UK’s digital future,” stated Andy Garvin, Chief Working Officer at Ark Information Centres.
Medium voltage structure for AI
ABB’s MV UPS deployment types the spine of the brand new energy structure on the website. Quite than treating the UPS as a bolt-on at low voltage, the system is built-in at MV degree together with the switchgear and controls.
“We’re serving to knowledge centres design from day one for rising AI workloads. Our medium voltage UPS know-how is AI-ready and a crucial step in assembly the facility calls for of future high-density racks,” famous Stephen Gibbs, UK Distribution Options Advertising and marketing and Gross sales Director, ABB Electrification.
“Delivered as a single turnkey resolution, we’re supporting as we speak’s newest know-how – and futureproofing for tomorrow’s megawatt-powered servers. ABB’s new medium voltage knowledge centre structure integrates HiPerGuard, the business’s first solid-state medium voltage UPS, with its UniGear MV switchgear and Zenon ZEE600 management system right into a single, end-to-end system. This turnkey strategy eliminates interface dangers and streamlines coordination throughout design, set up, and commissioning.”
In response to ABB, delivering the grid connection, switchgear, UPS and controls as one bundle is meant to simplify coordination throughout design, set up and commissioning, reasonably than leaving the operator to knit collectively separate vendor techniques.
JCA, which acted as a key supply accomplice on the undertaking, highlighted the programme and integration challenges that include constructing out energy infrastructure at this scale.
“Delivering a undertaking of this scale brings challenges; Having one accomplice accountable for the switchgear, UPS, and controls diminished complexity and helped hold the programme on monitor. Working alongside ABB, we had been capable of coordinate the set up and commissioning successfully, in order that Ark may benefit from the brand new system with out delays or dangers,” stated Steve Hill, Divisional Contracts Director, JCA.
Effectivity, area and generator use
The MV UPS resolution is rated to ship as much as 25MVA of conditioned energy for the campus. At excessive load, ABB says the system can obtain 98% effectivity, which reduces electrical losses and in flip cuts the quantity of waste warmth that must be eliminated by the cooling system.
By stabilising energy on the medium-voltage degree, Ark and ABB additionally count on to cut back reliance on standby turbines, limiting the necessity for them to step in to cowl short-term disturbances. Much less frequent generator runs will help minimize gas use and noise, and help Ark’s said objectives round working cleaner, extra sustainable amenities.
Working energy distribution and UPS at MV reasonably than low voltage additionally permits extra of the constructing footprint to be reserved for IT reasonably than electrical rooms. On this case, the structure is designed to open up further ground area for AI computing racks, supporting the type of high-density deployments that next-generation GPUs require.
