Roper Saint Francis Data Center

This data center complex for Roper St. Francis Healthcare and the Medical Society of South Carolina sits on a 24-acre site in North Charleston’s Palmetto Commerce Park and supports electronic communications for more than 100 Roper St. Francis Healthcare facilities throughout a nine-county area. The increase in the capacity for the communications systems lead to greater efficiency for the almost 300,000 people that Roper serves annually.

Housed inside the building are a 3,800-square-foot data floor, office, dock space, and dedicated mechanical and electrical service spaces. Due to the critical nature of these types of facilities, the mechanical system is N+1 active redundant, which ensures that the customer experiences no loss of conditioning in the event of a mechanical failure. In addition, the building is constructed to seismic design category D and can withstand a category IV hurricane.

Modular air-cooled chillers provide a total of 210 tons of cooling capacity and can be expanded to up to 360 tons for future growth. The 10,000-gallon thermal storage tank connected to the looped, chilled-water piping network provides full-load cooling in the event of a power failure while the system is in restart. The UPS systems provided are capable of powering the chilled water pumps, UPS room air handling units, data floor in-row coolers, and all critical data room equipment until generator power is online. The building automation system (BAS) has full reporting capabilities and monitors equipment status and alarms. Any anomalies reported by the BAS are instantly reported and are sent to multiple e-mail and text addresses to immediately alert management personnel of an issue. At project close-out, a 3rd party commissioning agent tested and verified all systems to a Tier IV certification level.