New-build AI data centre

A new build is the only time the whole thermal path is designed by one hand. Every decision made here, from facility supply temperature to the metering boundary at the fence, is close to free on paper and close to impossible to change once the hall is live.

We establish the IT operating limits, reliability requirements and site constraints first, with the server OEM and the owner. Within that envelope we work from the outside in. What return-water grade could the site produce, and is there a buyer for it? What facility supply temperature does that imply, and how many free-cooling hours does the climate give at that temperature? Then we work inward to CDU approach, secondary-loop design, manifold layout and cold-plate selection.

Heat reuse is an option, not a precondition. Without a buyer, the same design delivers a complete liquid cooling system with its own heat rejection. Where a buyer exists, the loop keeps an independent rejection path for the days the buyer cannot take the heat, and the connection points for a later heat-reuse phase can be reserved at design stage.

The acceptance criteria are written at design stage and attached to procurement. Every supplier knows what their boundary must prove before it is released. The commissioning plan is the same document, run in reverse.