A tier-3 data centre faced rising electricity bills and feared cooling failures that could cripple servers. By modernising chiller staging with a redundant PLC industrial automation solution from Symbiotic Automation, operators gained load management and sustained 100 % availability while cutting consumption by nearly one-fifth.
Challenges Faced
- Inflexible manual staging kept chillers running at full load round-the-clock.
- Pressure- and temperature-driven drifts risked thermal violations and shutdowns.
- Zero-downtime mandate required fully redundant control with instant failover.
Implementation
Symbiotic Automation deployed dual hot-standby PLCs linked to pressure, temperature, and health sensors, allowing rule-based staging of 24 chillers. Logic dynamically matches cooling demand, while an HMI presents live KPIs and alarms and feeds BACnet archives for reporting and analysis.
Key Implementations
- Dual hot-standby PLC architecture, zero switchover lag
- Rule-based chiller sequencing using live pressure and temperature inputs
- Full-screen HMI dashboards for KPIs, alarms, and trends
- BACnet server logging operational data for compliance and analytics
Outcomes & Benefits
- 18 % less power consumed per kW of IT load
- 0 seconds cooling downtime since deployment
- 3-week ROI achieved through energy savings and deferred maintenance
Future Scope
Next phase explores IIoT gateways, machine-learning load forecasting, and predictive maintenance models, integrating cooling towers and air handlers so plant managers unlock enterprise-wide optimisation through continuous data loops and insights.
