The first phase of a four-year consolidation strategy, the two-story, 250,000-SF data center was built to shift eBay’s resources from a handful of co-located facilities to one owned and managed by them to the highest standards in both cost and environmental efficiency.
The 16 MW phase one project is designed to expand to 69 MW and has a 1.3 PUE in combination with Tier IV reliability at the rack. Working closely with eBay and the A/E consultants, Skanska Mission Critical reconfigured both the electrical and mechanical system one-line design to increase reliability and concurrent maintenance capacity. This approach also decreased the construction time frame and reduced project costs. In addition, our engineering and controls team worked closely with the designers to rework the building’s controls system. Using an innovative proprietary adaptive relational control strategy, the team delivered a cooling strategy using nearly 35 percent less energy, from 0.8 kW per ton to 0.525 kW per ton of cooling.
A lean design-build delivery approach was successfully implemented to meet schedule, budget and quality standards, and resulted in virtually no logistical change orders. Early involvement of our field team facilitated subcontractors’ buy-in into the lean process and our schedules. Early preplanning facilitated the placement of 57 miles of underground conduit, accelerating the project schedule and delivering the finished building shell in a remarkable four months. Additionally, Skanska also gave back more than $4 million in cost savings to the client as a result of this planning effort.
Coinciding with its strong commitment to environmental sustainability, eBay established a goal to achieve LEED® Silver certification. However, on final review of the innovations incorporated into the project by Skanska, the facility achieved LEED® Gold certification.
