Come join us for a lunch break and in welcoming Terry L. Rodgers, CPE, CPMP as he presents "Commissioning Data Centers". We look forward to seeing everyone this month at our chapter meeting.

Terry has over 40 years of progressive experience in Critical Facilities operations and management including strategic planning, critical infrastructure design, operations, and commissioning; business protection and recovery; preventive and predictive maintenance; technical training and professional training development.

Terry is an ASHRAE Distinguished Lecturer and a voting member of ASHRAE TC9.9 "Mission Critical Facilities, Data Centers, Technology Spaces, & Electronic Equipment", ASHRAE SSPC 90.4 "Energy Standard for Data Centers”, ASHRAE SPC-127 "Method of Testing for Rating Computer Room Air Conditioners”, and GPC-1.6P “Commissioning Process for Data Centers”. He is on the Board of Directors of the 7x24 Exchange Carolinas Chapter. He is on the Board of Directors of the Building Commissioning Association’s Southeast Region and has authored or co-authored books, whitepapers, and presentations on Critical Facilities, facilities management, and formal commissioning. He has developed and taught multiple training classes in the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of critical facilities including commercial nuclear power plants, aerospace facilities, and large data centers.

Terry has performed site reliability assessments for more than 50 sites in over 20 countries and 5 continents. Terry writes a bi-monthly column in Mission Critical magazine called Sustainable Operations. Terry is currently the VP and National Leader for the Commissioning and Building Analytics business unit at Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL).

Commissioning Data Centers

Classification: Basic

ASHRAE Guideline 0 “The Commissioning Process” is widely recognized as the best guide for the commissioning of new construction projects.  This guideline is generic in that it does not differentiate between the types of facilities being constructed and is equally applicable to data centers as to commercial office buildings.  Data centers have their nuances and challenges that require different strategies and processes than other facilities.  In general, it is best to structure testing to start with the small and simple and progress to the large and complex.

The commissioning agent should manage the acceptance testing process and associated schedule to ensure that components and equipment are tested prior to testing systems, and that systems are tested and proven prior to proceeding to integrated testing. Acceptance testing of data centers differs somewhat from commercial office buildings and other non-critical facilities in that data centers have a much higher requirement for reliability and availability due to the requirement for continuous operations.  Continuous operations require designs and installations that are fault tolerant and allow for concurrent maintainability.  This equates to a much higher degree of redundancy, fail-over and backup systems, and more complex automation and associated sequences-of-operations. This obviously means the commissioning agent must have a different mindset than one who is not experienced with commissioning critical facilities.  Closeout documentation and staff training are also discussed. So, in short, the commissioning process starts at the very onset of a new construction initiative and ends when the site transitions into operational status.  The commissioning agent should be the first one in, and the last one out.