Schneider Electric and Total Power Solutions win ‘Data Centre Consolidation/Upgrade Project’ at DCS Awards 2023

Schneider Electric  and its Elite Partners, Total Power Solutions, an expert in power and cooling infrastructure, have won the ‘Data Centre Consolidation/Upgrade Project of the Year’ category at the DCS Awards 2023. The project saw the companies design and deliver a new high efficiency Uniflairä InRow Direct Expansion (DX) cooling system to the University College Dublin (UCD) and deploy a new EcoStruxureä Row Data Center solution at its Daedalus data centre.

Together, Schneider Electric and Total Power Solutions reduced the universities data centre Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) from 1.42 to 1.37, helping it lower energy consumption and costs, while supporting its commitments to environmental sustainability. Further, parts of the cooling plant and equipment were relocated to the roof of the building, freeing up significant space for redevelopment of new educational facilities, including an Applied Languages department.

Modernising a live environment

University College Dublin is the largest university in Ireland with a total student population of 33,000. It is also one of Europe’s leading research-intensive universities, with faculties of medicine, engineering, and all major sciences, as well as a broad range of humanities and professional departments. As part of a new strategic development plan to free-up space at its central Dublin campus, the IT services department made the decision to revitalise its data centre cooling architecture, making it more energy and space efficient, resilient, and scalable. Total Power Solutions worked with Schneider Electric to deploy a new EcoStruxure Row Data Center solution, which provided a highly efficient, close-coupled design that is suited to high density computing to support its research workloads. Further, the companies replaced the existing data centre cooling system with a Uniflair InRow DX solution, which offers many benefits including a modular design, more predictable cooling, and variable speed fans which help to reduce energy consumption.

"University College Dublin one of the world’s leading research-intensive universities, renowned for its commitments to fostering innovation and providing a dynamic student experience. Central to this is the continuity of its data centre,” said Mark Yeeles, Vice President, Secure Power Division, Schneider Electric, UK and Ireland. “I’m proud to accept this award on behalf of Schneider Electric and Total Power Solutions, which recognises how this new state-of-the-art infrastructure system will not only enhance UCD's resilience but will provide significant environmental benefits going-forward."

“The Daedalus data centre serves as the beating heart that powers all essential operations on campus. From the academic research and HPC clusters to the centralised IT system, it ensures seamless functionality across the institution,” said Paul Kavanagh, Managing Director, Total Power Solutions. “This award is testament to the use of innovative technology and engineering, which ensures the University can continue operating without any downtime and can support both its students and sustainability ambitions for the many years ahead.”