Sheffield Data Centre - Power

The electrical supply and distribution system is one of the most critical operations in the Sheffield Data Centre.

Design and capacity planning at the earliest stages of construction ensured a power distribution system which is both highly reliable and scalable for all data centre services.

On site Substation

The Sheffield Data Centre is directly connected to a YEDL / Northern Powergrid substation located at the perimeter of the commerce park. The substation sits on the local ring, and is capable of delivering all the power to the Data Centre for now and future capacity needs. Both our buildings have separate feeds to the substation, with separate breakers.

Decentralised UPS Protection

All critical services, (core & rack networking, security / fire alarms, access control, customer racks) are protected by APC and Secure Power decentralised Uninterruptible Power Supplies.

Core network kit also benefits from Automatic Transfer Switches, and dual feeds.

Each rack has individual UPS protection up to 30A, eliminating any Single Point of Failure from affecting the whole data centre. This approach of UPS deployment ensures customers get access to 100% of the UPS protected power their rack is entitled to, as well as allowing limitless expansion without affecting existing customers or risking disruption centrally.

All UPS’s are double-conversion, meaning they constantly clean and regulate the power entering the racks, preventing damage to equipment.

Each UPS is provided and maintained for by us at no extra cost to the customer.

Rack PDU’s

Rack PDU's are supplied as UK "three pin" outlets.  Each PDU can support a maximum of 10A. PDU's are included in the colocation price.

APC MasterSwitch reboot bars are available for £20 per month + VAT, all 8 sockets are available for you to remotely power-cycle equipment.

Diesel Generator

The Sheffield Data Centre is protected against utility (mains) outages by an 100kVA onsite diesel generator.

Utility power is constantly monitored and Automatic Transfer Switches failover power from utility to generator without human intervention. Engineers are automatically paged if the generator is started out of hours.

The generator has enough fuel for 8 hours running, with fuel re-supply arrangements in place.

UPS and Generator Testing

Each UPS is tested regularly, and runtime calibrations done quartetly.

A generator start test is conducted at least every 2 weeks to ensure "first time start".

Any issues identified during testing are addressed and resolved immediately.