AirTrunk launches first phase of 150MW Johor data centre
Massive 150MW data centre campus goes live.
AirTrunk has commenced operations at its massive 150MW data centre in Johor. Here's why it's different.
The JHB1 data centre campus spans over 10.3 hectares and features AirTrunk's own liquid cooling design.
AirTrunk says its customers include a major cloud availability zone.
JHB1 data centre
The JHB1 campus is fascinating for its sheer scale and for pushing the boundaries of hyperscale data centres.
- A solar-ready roof provides 1MW of power.
- Dual 132kV high voltage feed (Parallel conduits).
- Diverse fibre (I counted 8 entry points from 2 directions).
It will be built up over 3 phases, with phase 1 at 50MW. Phase 1 is currently live.
*Ridzuan Abd Malik says its 15MW RFS.
The next two phases will add 60MW and 40MW respectively for a total of 150MW.
Self-designed liquid cooling
Numbers aside, this is where things get interesting.
While AirTrunk is no stranger to large data centres, what stands out is its new liquid cooling design that was launched this month after a reported 5 years of R&D.
- Offers a PUE as low as 1.12.
- Support DTC, immersion cooling.
- Use of indirect evaporative cooling (IEC).
The first phase of JHB1 will only feature 20MW of liquid cooling though, so air-cooling is still predominantly featured for now.
Liquid cooling is hard to scale
Liquid cooling isn't new and the concepts are well understood. But the tricky part of liquid cooling is scaling it while minimising the risk of leaks.
I haven't visited an AirTrunk facility yet, but here's my conclusion after watching various AirTrunk videos and literature.
AirTrunk came up with a unique liquid cooling centric design that features:
- Its own piping, valve design.
- Their own 400kW cooling distribution units (CDU).
- Liquid load banks as thermal buffer for more reliability.
Similar to ST Engineering's Boon Lay data centre, AirTrunk is also complementing its chillers at the CDU level with IEC coolers for higher energy efficiency.
That's all for now. I'll write a new post if I learn more about AirTrunk's liquid cooling design.
