New details emerge on how CyrusOne will power and cool its Ealing data centre
The company aims to take power direct from the new Elstree B substation and use closed-loop cooling
The recent news that CyrusOne has published plans to build a £1.4 billion data centre on the former Honey Monster factory site in Southall raised concerns that the development would be a major drain on local power and water resources.
A spokeswoman for the company told the View from W5: “We are bringing in our power for the facility from outside the area as we are aware that local power is constrained and we certainly don’t want to add to local power issues.”
The Greater London Authority has been working to improve electricity transmission in west London since it was told in 2022 that the scale of local development had created capacity constraints on distribution and transmission networks in Hillingdon, Hounslow and Ealing, delaying projects into the next decade.
Read the original story on the £1.4 billion Southall data centre
However, the company has revealed more details about how it aims to overcome power and water supply challenges in its submission to Ealing Council for a “Screening Opinion under Regulation 6 of the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations.”
In the submission, the company states it has entered into a connection agreement, via UK Power Networks to the National Grid Electricity Transmission network for the delivery of a 132 kilovolt connection from the new Elstree B substation to the Southall site by June 2029.
The Southall data centre would also include its own substation which would connect directly to the transmission network.
CyrusOne notes that the power supply and transmission routing works would be delivered under the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, subject to a consenting regime separate from the Environmental Impact Assessment and would not be considered by the submission put before Ealing Council.
In case of power cuts, the data centre would be able to operate for 48 hours with its emergency generators. The plans include provision for 90 34,000 litre hydrotreated vegetable oil generator belly tanks to power approximately 90 emergency generators.
Readers were equally concerned with the bad reputation of data centres in water management. Dr Venkatesh Uddameri, a Texas-based expert in water resources management, told the BBC a typical data centre can use between 11 million and 19 million litres of water per day, roughly the same as a town of 30,000 to 50,000 people.
CyrusOne insist the company’s data cenres are different. On its website, the company states its target for water conservation is not to simply do “less bad” but to do “more good” and leave regions better than if the company had never arrived.
“With this in mind, we developed our net positive water strategy and pioneered the first net positive water data centre in 2020. To achieve net positive water status, we first reduce the amount of water that is needed and then partner with environmental nonprofits to restore 20 percent more water than we withdraw from the local watersheds,” the company states on its website.
In its submission to the council, CyrusOne said that the Southall data centre would be equipped with water-efficient fixtures, such as low-flow toilets and taps to limit drinkable water demand and sewer discharge. According to the submission: “The data centre cooling system would be a closed loop design such that potable water demand would be limited to top-up waters. Accordingly, negligible effects in relation to potable water demand and sewer discharge demand are expected.”
CyrusOne say that the construction project will create 1,200 jobs and the date centre will support 650 full time jobs.