1. Preamble

The aim of this meeting was to review the Bellwater report and decide how now to proceed.

2. Bellwater Report Review

The Bellwater team considered 4 options for the provision of additional floor area.

A partial mezzanine over the machine room,
a mezzanine over the barn, moving barn offices/labs to the vault,
provision of a raised floor in the vault, and
use of high level racking in the machine room.

Concerning this last option, Bellwater consider that “[this option] should not be considered as the ptovision of tall racks is not normally very practical.”
Bellwater recommend the second option. A key reason is the limited clearance of the vault, but their costings (provided later) also favour this option.
We should now follow up on various points to check the validity of the Bellwater conclusions.

3. Mezzanine floor costs

Anne will ask ST/TFM to produce a rough cost estimate for a mezzanine floor over either the barn or the machine room. This cost has to be compared with the cost for air conditioning units in the vault.

4. Air Conditioning

Additional chilled water capacity (necessary for a 2MW heat load) has already been estimated at 350KCHF. However, this is required whichever option is chosen.
If a mezzanine solution is chosen, some modifications are required to the air conditioning in the machine room/barn. More importantly, air conditioning would have to be installed in the corridors of B513. Jukka will cost both elements.

· We may need to avoid overhead ducting for air conditioning if the vault solution is to be viable. Is a solution with “room air conditioning units” feasible? Jukka will investigate. The concerns are that there may be “hotspots” in the middle of the room from which the units can’t suck warm air—but perhaps this can be avoided by placing one or more units in the middle of the room. Setting 25°C rather than 22°C as the working temperature might be beneficial. If this solution is feasible then the recently cleared MG room would not be needed to house air-conditioning plant.

5. Electricity Supply for B513

Bellwater suggest the need for an “energy centre” outside the computer centre which would house 18kV/400V transformers and some system (static or rotary UPS) to ensure against supply interruptions. The size of the “energy centre” is comparable for the two options.
Anne’s proposal for the integration of B513 into the 18kV ring would appear to have wide support—and would also require the construction of a building outside B513 to house transformers. This work could be done independently of any upgrade to the UPS protection and would take 8-12 months from go-ahead to completion. (Most of the delay would be related to the building construction work as the equipment that is needed can be purchased under existing contracts.)
It was agreed that Anne should develop a plan for the integration of B513 into the 18kV ring with the building sized to house either UPS solution.
Concerning the UPS sizing, there would appear to be consensus that

if site-wide provision for supply continuity can support a 2MW load and functions correctly, then a UPS that can support 2MW for 5 minutes is sufficient;
if site-wide provision cannot be guaranteed to function correctly then UPS coverage is required for an absolute minimum of 30 minutes—and preferably up to 2 hours.

However, there is no agreement on the load to be supported in the latter case. Must the full 2MW load be supported or is it acceptable to drop the physics load and maintain only the absolutely essential services. More work is required to understand the costs, risks and benefits and also the ways in which services could be separated (and the UPS system configured) in the second scenario.

6. AOB

Due to work commitments for Anne & Jukka, the next meeting will be in late March.