Data center opening, electrical testers answer all your questions

Data center operators are committed to bringing their newly built data centers online on time and preparing for their normal operation around the clock. Since power is the lifeline of data center operations, electrical equipment is at the core of data center construction and operation plans.

[[246512]]

Before a data center is put into operation, electrical testers are needed to conduct testing work to ensure that the data center facilities are working properly. Before they start work, operators need to ask them the following seven questions:

1. How can you help us ensure the delivery date?

Electrical testing is critical to ensuring the performance and reliability of a newly built data center. Operators need to look for an independent testing team that has specific strategies to protect the organization's schedule. Active data management is an important answer. Operators need to ask testers about their strategies for building efficiency in data logging and how they properly manage software synchronization for the organization or its clients. The testing team should be able to talk about the following:

• Electronic data capture and field data coordination.
• Adapt data collection to proprietary systems.

2. How can you help me stay on schedule and on scope?

Operators must consider not only their ability to plan, but also their ability to scale and adapt to execute on those plans. Stability and financial strength demonstrate that the test team is prepared for its scope and the scope of the protection project. Operators should not ignore the cost of scalability. Cost estimates that rely on idealistic assumptions may indicate a lack of commitment and a lack of ability to meet demand. Technical capabilities and proven engineering solutions are critical, but operators need more than just an expert answer to many problems; they also need a team to support, scale, and adapt to achieve it.

3. How can you help us deliver a ready-to-go facility that will be operational 24/7 from day ***?

The general answer is that the test service team can only help the organization by providing good service, but the service partner will be responsible for ensuring that the operator fulfills its responsibilities. The details that the operator wants to hear are the ability to:

(1) Skilled in-house experts who can meet your needs

• Flexible labor resources
• Management capabilities to provide advice and adaptation

(2) Proven project planning, management and on-site supervision

Look for a test team that enforces collaborative accountability. Does the operator contact from the test team attend important meetings to avoid communication delays? If a problem does arise, can the test team develop a plan to keep the operator's work on schedule? Most importantly, will the testers commit to minimum deadlines and show the operator the resources needed to meet those deadlines when pressure mounts?

4. Can you ensure that all subcontractors meet certification and training standards?

This question is easy to answer. If the answer is "yes" or "we handle everything without subcontracting," then go ahead.

5. If needed, can you provide electrical safety training for our company's or our customers' operators?

At first glance, this may seem like a value-added service, but compliance and insurance issues put electrical training on the must-have list. An electrical testing company with its own safety training program can save operators from having to vet other vendors and speed up the process. The testing team can share knowledge with trainers to better train operators’ staff for data center facilities.

The availability of safety training is also a litmus test. A testing company that is committed to safety and provides training to others should put safety at the center of its culture. This is a good sign that the testing company not only knows the safety rules but also prioritizes, gets, and keeps everyone on board.

Make sure that training is required for the needs of the operators, whether they are skilled technicians or non-electricians. If you are unsure what kind of safety training may be needed, your testing partner should be a trusted resource for best practices and requirements.

6. Can you advise on ongoing maintenance of mission-critical equipment?

No matter how well a facility’s design is future-proofed, or how impressive the delivered facility is, operational decisions will impact data center uptime. Paying attention to future maintenance now can help operators reduce the risk of a failure being traced back to their work. A testing partner with a deep understanding of facility systems can provide consultation on necessary maintenance, but only if they have the capability to do so. Operators need to dig deep into a potential partner’s expertise in this area by asking how the following will be handled:

• Detect and avoid power quality issues
• Make recommendations for asset life-extending maintenance
• Avoid downtime for maintenance
• When assessing risk, meet the equipment maintenance status now required by NFPA 70E

7. What kind of safety standards do you have?

The operator's customers may already have safety standards submitted to them. The operator's own safety standards may also exceed those of their customers. When talking with the electrical testing company, the operator may decide that a third set of safety standards is not necessary to complicate matters.

This remains a crucial question for at least three reasons.

• Finally, operators expect electrical testing companies to have a clear safety culture. This means that everyone from technicians to managers makes safety a top priority.
• Second, operators want to ensure that the testing company never sacrifices safety to complete the plan. Testing companies with established standards have extensive experience in keeping pace and maintaining safety.
• Third, operators need to build a security team that can easily meet or exceed any service their customers or themselves want. Doing so requires not only well-trained and experienced technical personnel, but also the operations management personnel required by the organization to meet delivery dates and prepare for 24/7 data center operation.