Innovation and growth drive an Australasian first for Northpower
Northpower officially unveil their 20-foot data centre collaboration with Schneider Electric
Whangarei /New Zealand – April 26, 2016 – Northpower has clocked up yet another first, this time an engineering and technology collaboration with Schneider
Electric to design and construct the first pre-fabricated portable data centre of its kind in the Asia Pacific region.
The 20-foot data centre, to be officially unveiled at Northpower’s Whangarei headquarters on April 26, was designed to
significantly increase availability and redundancy of internal IT systems.
Innovative solutions such as this are proving to be game changers for industries throughout the region looking for
cost-effective solutions for secure portable data centres. Compared to traditional data centre designs, the new concept
was hundreds of thousands of dollars cheaper.
Using the template created with Northpower, Schneider Electric has already been commissioned to construct a similar
design in Australia.
Both businesses are becoming increasingly renowned for their innovation. Northpower is leading the way in New Zealand
with the growth of the electric vehicle sector and ultra-fast broadband fibre network design and builds, while also
expanding its electricity network acoustic testing expertise in Australia.
Meanwhile, Schneider Electric continues to invest and develop connected technologies that manage energy and processes in
a safer, more reliable, efficient and sustainable manner for their customers.
Northpower Chair Nikki Davies-Colley says the data centre is a superb addition to the Northpower business, due to energy
efficiency, greater security and lower operational costs.
“The complexity of this design and build created numerous challenges but the success of the project meant that when the
container landed at Northpower’s Whangarei head office, it was plugged in and instantly operational,” says Mrs
Davies-Colley.
“The facility also has provision for the future requirements of Ultra-Fast Broadband points of presence and could expand
into co- location services for resellers (e.g. other companies storing their servers in the data centre).”
Schneider Electric’s Ray Dunn says the pre-fabricated portable data centre has set a benchmark for the future and
generated widespread industry interest for other entities seeking such solutions.
“We are proud to have collaborated with such a forward thinking New Zealand company. Northpower's challenge was
testament to their growth & a changing business environment, which is increasingly dependent on IT convergence and data” Ray Dunn, Country
President, Schneider Electric, New Zealand.
Key components of the solution innovation included:
• First Pre-Fabricated Smart SmartShelter Container in Asia Pacific
• 12 months pre-planning
• Fast build time – eight weeks to deploy a Data Centre
• Compact small design for medium server density
• Health and Safety complied with fresh air renovation for working in the small Data Centre
• Fire Suppression and LED lighting for health and safety
• Security enhanced with biometric entry
• Significant cost savings with a reduced building footprint of a DC in a 20ft ISO container
• Reduced Impact on the environment with a PUE of 1.3 "Power Usage Effectiveness" IT Industry measure of the Data
Centre (The previous Northpower DC PUE was around 2.6)
• Reduced carbon emissions and less noise pollution
• Natural products in the insulation container walls
• Built with the leading brand of global Data Centre infrastructure, Schneider Electric
• Energy managed with Meters and monitored with StruxureWare Software
• Automated Facilities operation (the system has a fully automated phone home system around the fire panel and
fire suppression and infrastructure – fully automated cooling …. (Basically the software runs everything in the
container and there is no need for anyone to go in there)
• Project was on budget and on time
• Pre-engineered at factory and pre-tested with a factory acceptance test
ENDS