Global Switch first in Singapore to adopt Design for Manufacturing and Assembly methods for data centre construction

Global Switch, a leading owner and operator of large scale carrier and cloud neutral data centres in Europe and Asia-Pacific, announced that its Singapore Woodlands data centre, is the first project in the island state to adopt prefabricated mechanical and electrical and plumbing (MEP) modular techniques on a large scale. The data centre is due to launch later this year.

Earlier this month, a delegation from the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) led by Mr Neo Choon Keong, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Industry Development), visited the development in order to view first-hand the advanced Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) methods being used to construct the project. Mr Neo commented, “Global Switch Singapore Woodlands is contributing to our initiative to raise construction productivity. Visiting the site was an eye opener and we believe this project will boost the industry’s confidence in adopting prefabricated MEP systems for higher productivity and quality, in line with Singapore’s construction industry transformation efforts.”

Gammon Construction, which were awarded the contract by Global Switch, are assembling over 60% of the MEP works off-site. This method of manufacturing elements off-site has multiple benefits including increased productivity, safety and quality.

Singapore Woodlands, will be strategically located in the north of the island and physically distanced from Global Switch’s existing Tai Seng data centre to meet dual occupancy demand. Global Switch Singapore Woodlands will provide 25,000 square metres of world-class critical infrastructure, supported by 30MVA of utility power supply capacity. The SGD280 million data centre will host multiple connectivity options with the ability to directly access the dense networks currently operating from within Global Switch Tai Seng, which is recognised as one of the leading communication hubs in the Asia-Pacific region and has significant sub-sea cable system infrastructure present.

Singapore Woodlands will be a leading example of an environmentally sustainable data centre and will be targeting a Platinum BCA Green Mark as well as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold Rating. The data centre will have a design PUE of 1.38, with reconfigurable and highly efficient power and cooling distribution, variable speed fans and high energy efficient CRAH units.

Sam Lee, Global Switch’s Managing Director for Singapore, stated “We were extremely pleased to host the delegation led by the BCA and were delighted to receive such acknowledgement for the approach we have taken with construction of Global Switch’s second data centre in Singapore.

“Singapore Woodlands is on target to launch at the end of 2018 and will become Global Switch’s twelfth data centre in our portfolio. It follows closely on from the launch of the first stage of our Hong Kong data centre as well as the completion of our Sydney East data centre at the end of last year.”

Singapore Woodlands will deliver a highly resilient environment allowing scalable and flexible solutions supported by numerous connectivity options. It is also designed to meet best-in-class operational and environmental management processes and will operate to Tier III plus standards.

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