NREL’s Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) High-Performance Computing Data Center (HPCDC) provides computing support to the entire NREL campus. Originally constructed with future expansion in
mind, its current ability was 5 megawatts (MW) of computer cooling capacity Due to NREL’s growth and increase research demand, further build-out was requested to increase the capacity by another 2.5 MW
of cooling. As the original Cx provider for the ESIF, EEI was ideally positioned to commission its expansion.

Description of Work

EEI’s scope included:

• Attending weekly owner/architect/contractor (OAC) meetings
• Commissioning the new equipment
• Working with the contractors to resolve issues identified by our team

We addressed deviations from the design intent to deliver an expansion that aligned with NREL’s needs. Our team identified and resolved issues of equipment and controls installation not per the design. We were instrumental in detecting flow balance and control deviations, which resulted in fully integrated new and existing equipment once resolved. Our final Cx documentation lists each issue and its resolution. It also included temporary system settings to be adjusted as cooling load is added to the data center.

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