Vertiv has helped NEXTDC unlock new digital opportunities for Australia’s Pilbara region, delivering robust power and cooling infrastructure to its Port Hedland data centre.
The new deployment supports the region’s need for robust data centre support to allow local government and industry to continue digitalization growth and the adoption of AI.
NEXTDC provides colocation and connectivity services to Australian and international organisations. The company operates 16 data centre facilities throughout the country, with another five sites currently in the planning and development stages.
PH1 Port Hedland is NEXTDC’s Port Hedland data centre, located in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia, which services the port operations of local mining, oil and gas, and the federal government sectors.
Within the facility, Vertiv’s integrated modular data centre solutions operate close to the region’s Vocus telecommunications fibre network, helping to make cloud-based services—including AI and machine learning—available to NEXTDC’s PH1 Port Hedland customers.
Vertiv designed, procured, and implemented a complete prefabricated modular, rugged data centre for Stage 1 of the facility’s total capacity.
The prefabricated approach allowed NEXTDC to overcome logistical issues because of the area’s remoteness, using capital city-built pre-engineered components and on-site standardised construction processes to reduce remote assembly costs and speed time to deployment.
As a scalable, modular solution, the Vertiv deployment can be rapidly expanded to support additional growth. Meanwhile, the solution’s ruggedised design is tailored to withstand the Pilbara desert’s harsh environmental conditions.
NEXTDC project manager Mark Hamilton said standard data centre equipment isn’t usually specified for these conditions.
“Vertiv knew and understood this, and together, we made sure to use condensers appropriately rated at 55 degrees Celsius,” he said.
“Plus, we considered the facility’s resilience in the event of a cyclone. So, PH1 Port Hedland has tie-downs to steel fixings, appropriate to withstand high wind pressures, and includes substantive protection around critical equipment to endure a flying tree, should an event occur.
The modular solution is Tier III Uptime Institute-certified and uses refrigerant-based air cooling. It also promotes scalability, should NEXTDC introduce increasingly popular alternative liquid cooling methods.
Other features include a high-efficiency UPS system, which supports the environment’s high-density power requirements, and lithium-ion batteries for longer-lasting power.