Goal of the project
The building owner repurposed several floors of a downtown Vancouver commercial office facility as a powered shell data centre. The goal was to commission all mechanical systems and perform the testing required to verify cooling system operation for prospective data centre tenants — providing documented evidence of capacity and performance to support tenant due diligence.
How did KCx achieve goal
Starting and testing the chillers presented an immediate challenge: a powered shell has no active IT load to test against, and cooling capacity cannot be verified without one. KCx Engineering supported and facilitated a novel test procedure that used several heat exchangers to draw on the tower’s existing heating system as a substitute heat load — allowing the chillers to be exercised and verified under realistic conditions before any tenant equipment was in place.
KCx performed all hydronic balancing across the plant and distribution system, along with full commissioning of the control systems. The result is a documented, tested cooling plant that the owner can demonstrate to prospective data centre tenants with measured evidence of performance rather than design assumptions.
